Spring is Mother Nature’s way of saying “Let’s party!” Everything seemingly suddenly bursts to life after what feels like time suspended forever (especially for the cool climate gardener) after months watching, waiting (deep breath) …and watching, waiting (deep breath) and repeat.
There is however a lot to do in this downtime for you to prep the garden. A lot of physical work too, which will warm your bones even on the iciest late Winter day.
Soil Prep
This is the big one pre-Spring. Remembering that with gardens we are always trying to work one to two seasons ahead of ourselves as most manures, soil fertilisers, compost and other organic additions take a month or more to settle in and do the magic. We suggest you really concentrate on building up organics all throughout the year, but if you are time-poor and can’t do that, then Autumn and Spring truly are the peak times we recommend adding as much organics as you can.
Autumn is a top time to replenish soil. If like us, your Summer harvest is prolific, all that energy expended to grow things will need replacing. This ensures your soil is ready for the next batch of green goodness. The other good thing about an Autumn organic top-up is that it allows the organics time to settle in for Summer plantings which you will pop into the ground generally around late Spring. This especially applies to manures, because you don’t plant directly after manure is added in (you need to let it settle first).
Your Organic Spring Fling (that’s the day you dance around busting out wild moves whilst flinging that compost, manure and Rockdust liberally whilst whirling through your garden beds – what??!! Just us? Ok, carry on), should be planned around the seasonal timing when your garden benefits most from a feed, so it is super nourished and ready for the organic hungry Summer produce.
Weeds
Once the soil begins to warm up you will notice the weeds also appear! Pesky aren’t they?! If you get on top of them late Winter we promise they will diminish rather than waiting until they have developed seed heads which spread wildly in the wind, producing new weeds which really sprawl their way through the garden. They are like mushrooms and will continually pop up if you don’t get on top of them. Eeek! Disaster impending. But with a good maintenance regime now, it will save you heartache later. A little bit often will get you on top of those weeds. Maybe pull some out every time you hang your washing on the line or have your morning cuppa. It also goes without saying the healthier your soil is, the less weeds hopefully you will have. So, build up the organics continually in the garden.
Lawn Prep
It’s around mid-October you’ll hear the neighbourhood lawnmowers all fire into action in unison. Lawns love a good pamper in Spring because it is a time when hopefully the Spring rains have brought some joy your part of the world. The soil soaking up all that wet goodness also heralds that you can help nature along to absorb it by doing the Lawn Spring Revival Dance. Get out there with a fork and sink those tines into the lawn halfway to the top of the fork and wiggle it about to loosen the lawn, pull it out, take a step forward and repeat until your whole lawn is done. What you are doing here is pricking holes into the lawn to allow better water penetration, so it is evenly distributed throughout the lawn, promoting improved growth and healthier lawns.
We often don’t think of lawn when it comes to our gardens, and figure it will just grow itself. But considering lawn is a series of roots and grasses with the odd pesky weed appearing, a bit of TLC every now and then is key to maintaining a great lawn. This will not only lessen those weeds growing, which is good because no one likes a prickly weed ruining a barefoot lawn walk, and it will make for more robust grass growth plus a much nicer place to host fabulous outdoor picnics with friends. When you have done the Fork Dance, do the Rockdust Dance and grab a handful of our organic certified Rockdust and fling it over the lawn (one handful per square meter). This will encourage the biodiversity in your lawn and get those worms working double time. A final trick you need to do is to spread some Munash Organics Revitalise on top of the lawn too. This is our certified organic green waste recycled compost which will promote growth, especially in those dead patches of lawn we all have (sometimes caused by pets using the lawn as their toilet or a spot in the shade). Just sprinkle thin amounts of Revitalise around and let the rain soak it in (along with the Rockdust) – no need to dig in either product.
With the lawn, weeds and soil attended to, all that is left to do is get planting for a great Summer Harvest.
Oh, and one last little tip you might want to do mid-Winter involves your trees and roses. With any trees which have lost their leaves, it’s a really opportune time to observe the ‘skeleton’ of the tree and take in its formation to work out what dead wood you may like to remove. Not to mention getting out those secateurs to prune your roses.
Good luck!
Here at Munash Organics we encourage and assist your Inner Green Goddess (and Gods). We have developed quality easy-to-use products for the backyard gardeners which will bring life to all your garden dreams no matter what season.
Munash Organics range is certified organic and safe to use around kids, humans and pets plus will ensure your flowers, veg, herbs, fruit simply oozes with life and health-giving nutrients.