It's National Gardening Day – And These 6 Quick, Beginner-Friendly Jobs Will Fast-Track Your Spring Garden
April 14th is National Gardening Day – time to get your hands in the soil and discover the benefits of gardening
Early spring is a perfect time to discover the joys of gardening. April 14th is National Gardening Day, where new and experienced gardeners alike are encouraged to get outside, have their hands in the soil, or sow some seeds. If you are unsure where to start in your yard, we look at some quick, simple tasks that make an immediate impact on your outdoor space and well-being.
Whether you aspire for flowers, vegetables, or herbs, there are small steps you can take this month that can transform your yard and bring both physical and mental benefits. No matter the size of the space, from a large garden to a windowsill, there will be something for this National Gardening Day.
You don’t need to be a dab hand at horticulture to make a difference this National Gardening Day. These tasks for beginner gardeners are quick, simple, enjoyable, and can bring you a beautiful, productive spring and summer garden.
Article continues below1. Do Some Quick Clearing
A bit of spring cleaning can quickly spruce up any flower beds, raised beds, or containers you have in your garden. It does not take lots of elbow grease to take them from messy and tired to clean and ready for spring planting.
Old leaves, stems, and other debris from previous years not only look ugly but also provide hiding places for pests and diseases. Removing them clears the soil and stops any new or existing plants from being affected by these unwanted hangers-on.
April is an ideal time to remove this remaining dead or diseased plant material. Cut down any dead stems with sharp pruning tools (these pruning shears at Amazon are ideal for beginner gardeners), and a handheld mini-rake (such as this hand rake at Walmart) can collect old leaves and stems from around plants.
Clearing all this old clutter uncovers the soil and allows it to breathe. As the sun reaches the soil surface, it warms earlier in spring, to benefit the early growth of plants.
If you want to start a great new gardening project, use all this old debris to make compost. Adding a composter (like this tumbling composter at Amazon) to your yard or starting a compost heap allows you to recycle old garden waste into compost, a nutritious soil amendment.
2. Spend a Few Minutes Weeding
I’ll be the first to admit that convincing anyone that weeding the garden is an enjoyable task can be a tough sell. However, it doesn’t need to be a tough, arduous task; there are ways to weed a garden quickly to get it ready for spring and summer.
Such quick and effective tactics include adopting a little-and-often approach, taking five minutes a day to attack an area and remove weeds, or even to deadhead dandelions and the like to prevent them from spreading.
As weeds can spread hundreds of seeds, tackling them when they are small or preventing them from seeding can help you keep on top of weeds. Dedicating some time to getting rid of weeds in spring makes a big difference, not just because they are much easier to remove when young.
I take great satisfaction from popping my headphones on, listening to music or a podcast, and clearing a set area. It doesn’t mean spending hours clearing large swathes; I focus on a little section at a time. And each of these little weeding sessions adds up in the end.
If you do have particularly weed-filled beds, you can cover the ground with cardboard to smother the weeds. You can recycle old cardboard for weed control or buy a roll (like this cardboard roll at Amazon). Cut some holes in the cardboard, plant through it, and cover with some compost, and people will be none the wiser.
3. Feed the Soil
Improving your garden soil is the best way to fast-track a spring or summer garden, as healthy soil means fast growth of any existing or new plants.
Feeding your ground is beneficial for any soil type and any size of space, and your plants will appreciate the dose of essential nutrients.
The best way to boost soil nutrients and structure is to add compost or well-rotted manure and lightly incorporate it into the ground. You can either use homemade compost or purchase bags from garden centres or online, such as this bag of blended compost and manure, available at Amazon.
Alternatively, if you want an even easier option than mixing it in, you can add a few inches as a mulching layer, and it will naturally be incorporated into the soil by earthworms.
Not only does adding organic matter help with fertility, but it also improves the soil structure, which can improve drainage and help plants develop healthy roots.
If you do opt for manure, always make sure it is well-rotted. Fresh manure has extremely high levels of nitrogen, which can burn plant roots.
4. Add Impact With Spring Flowers
If you want a quick payoff of flowers, why not add plug plants to beds or containers this month? Provided the frosts have finished in your climate, you can get spring bedding in the form of pansies, violas, primula, and wallflowers that will bring impactful color to your spring displays.
Add a handful of slow-release fertilizer when you plant any perennials or annuals into your yard this month, such as this organic, all-purpose plant food at Burpee. Such a product can feed for many months, and, along with deadheading plants, will encourage a long display of blooms.
If you want to be a bit more hands-on, there are lots of fast-growing flowers to plant in April that can go from sowing to flowering in 6-10 weeks. Sowing seeds is vastly rewarding, and you can start seeds off on a bright, warm windowsill.
The likes of sunflowers, marigolds, zinnias, cosmos, nasturtium, and more are all fast-growing flowering annuals that can be sown indoors in April to get a head start and planted outdoors in just a few weeks. Use a quality potting soil to sow seeds indoors, like this seed starting mix, also available at Burpee.
5. Sow Fast-Growing Vegetables
Growing your own food is a great gateway into gardening. The joys of seeing the whole process of sowing, planting, and harvesting your own vegetables cannot be underestimated. Why not make this National Gardening Day the time to start growing your own crops at home?
A perfect way to start is to opt for fast-growing vegetables. They germinate reliably, and you can be enjoying harvests in under a month. You should enjoy these fast results and get the growing bug.
There is a great selection of quick vegetables to plant in April, including radishes, lettuce, spinach, green onions, and baby beets.
Even if you don’t have lots of space, all of these can grow in containers on a patio, you can get large harvests from balconies, and you can even grow vegetables in hanging baskets.
For the smallest footprint of all, growing microgreens on a windowsill takes up little space, and you can enjoy harvests within two or three weeks of sowing.
6. Plant Summer Bulbs
Gardening is so often about thinking and planning ahead. You can guarantee stunning blooms in a few months by planting some of the best summer bulbs in April.
Planting summer bulbs is a lovely job for National Gardening Day. The likes of lilies, begonias, dahlias, agapanthus, crocosmia, and canna can be planted into the soil when it warms in early spring. It gives them lots of time to establish in warm, moist ground and put on a fantastic display of blooms come summer.
To be honest, those listed above are officially not all bulbs. Some are bulbs, others are tubers, and one is a corm, but they can all be planted in the ground this month (provided the last of the frosts has passed) and will put on a glorious summer show. They deserve a place on any spring gardening checklist.
The likes of lilies, dahlias, and agapanthus are all easy bulbs for containers, too. Fill a large pot with a soil for container gardening, such as this potting mix at Amazon, and plant the bulb at a depth of 2-3 times its height.
What to Shop This National Gardening Day
This efficient weeding tool has an angled head to lever even tap-rooted weeds out of the soil. It is perfect for quickly weeding borders, raised beds, or even containers.
A good pair of gardening gloves is essential to protect your hands. These durable and comfortable gloves are suited to any task, and the long sleeves protect your arms, too.
This set contains steel pruning shears, loppers, and hedge shears. It is all you need for a wide range of gardening tasks, including pruning trees, shrubs, and perennial plants.
National Gardening Day may be just a day, but April as a whole is a month of great activity in the garden. There are lots of tasks that may need to be done, and this guide on what to plant in April is perfect for lots of planting inspiration. For further guidance this month, you can also see any plants to prune in April that feature in your garden and may require some attention.
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