Get your tools ready

Before you can do anything to your garden, you’ll need your tools to be working like the day you bought them. Preparing your garden will be a task and you have to make sure you will have a reliable tool that won’t breakdown in the middle of tending to your garden.

1. Get rid of any visible dirt on the tool with a paint scraper or wire brush.
2. Wash the tool thoroughly with water and light soap to get rid of any remaining dirt and dry sap.
3. Once your garden tool is clean, lightly apply oil to avoid any premature rusting. Apply oil to any joint or moving parts that require lubrication so you can use the tool without any resistance. This will also lessen wear and tear when in use.

General cleaning

1. Start with the visible unwanteds like broken branches, dead leaves, animal wastes, and anything else that’s not supposed to be there. The snow should be gone by now and you can also start raking your yard. 
2. Raking removes any grass clumps and dry leaves that may result in an unhealthy lawn. This process also encourages healthy growth on your grass. Dead plant materials like dry leaves may harbor diseases that can affect fresh new plants in spring.
3. Throw away and replace wooden raised bed pannels, fencing, garden furniture, or tool that may have rot during winter. Rot can easily spread on any wood material and it’s better to deal with it as soon as you see it. When you’re done you should have a clean and open space to start working on other tasks.

Start pulling weeds

Weeds will show up in any garden and it’s quite troublesome to have. They take a huge bite of the water and nutrients in the soil that your plants are supposed to get, and they are an eyesore. Early spring is the best time to pull out those weeds when the soil is still soft from all the melted snow making it easier to pull them out. Make sure you grab them by the base and pull out everything including the roots. Avoid pulling too hard and cutting the weed in half leaving the root behind. These roots will just grow new sets of weed in a couple of days. You can use a narrow shovel or garden knife to pierce the soil if the ground is a bit tough for pulling regularly.

Prune away!

You’d want to prune late winter to early spring before any new growth starts. Start by cutting dead or damaged branches or stems that may encourage the development of diseases and attraction of pests. Be sure of what you have in mind and think of what you want to do. Different plants and trees require different types of pruning and it’s best to know to do the best for your plants.

Maintain that edge

Edging means trimming that extra growth that hangs over the side of your lawn. This gives the garden a clean and manicured look with well-defined lines that you desire. But giving your lawn a beautiful makeover is not the only thing it does. Edging your lawn will help reduce weed and contribute to your lawn’s overall health. It provides a root barrier to keep those invasive lawn grasses from entering your flowerbeds. 

Tend to the soil

1. After you’ve got all the weed out, it’s time to give attention to your soil. Use the dried leaves and twigs that you’ve gathered as mulch. This will help retain the moisture in the soil when hotter temperatures come. It will also limit weed growth in your garden. 
2. When giving back nutrients to the soil, nature will need your help as it will struggle to do this naturally in a garden. You can use either compost or fertilizer. Use compost to give food to the soil to get it ready for any plant you may think of planting and use specific fertilizers for plants that are already planted. When using fertilizers be sure that you get the one suited for your plants specifically.