You might feel like the gardening season is winding down, but an excellent fall task is to plant bulbs so they can thrive from winter chilling and get their roots started before spring warmth helps them emerge. Certain spring flowers are called “dormant perennials.” They need the cool, moist autumn soil to awaken them from their dormancy so they can begin growing roots in preparation for the spring show. You can even plant a few vegetable bulbs in the fall that will thrive in the early summer with this extra growing time. This blog covers what you need to know to start your fall bulb planting!
When to Plant Bulbs in the Fall
The best time to plant fall bulbs is when soils are below 15°C in the late fall or about six weeks before a hard frost is expected. This is usually during September and October (Halloween is a reasonable deadline to set).
How to Plant Bulbs in the Fall
Planting bulbs is generally an easy task, but there are some things that you want to get right. Here are tips to keep in mind:
- Bulbs need at least partial sun throughout the spring. They look beautiful growing beneath trees (before the trees leaf out), amidst wildflowers, and mixed with spring annuals in containers.
- Bulbs need a spot with good drainage, or they may rot. Before planting, work a few inches of compost into the soil for nutrients and drainage, especially if you have heavy clay soil. If your soil is sandy, plant bulbs slightly deeper; in clay soils, slightly shallower.
- Plant bulbs with the point facing up! Examine bulbs carefully before placing them in the planting hole, being sure to set them with the roots facing down.
- Consider the bloom time for each bulb (early spring, mid-spring, late spring) and plant bulbs with different bloom times so that you have flowers throughout spring!
- Place shorter bulbs in the front of beds and borders.
- Plant bulbs generously in case some do not sprout (or are devoured by hungry squirrels). Plant them randomly and with varied spacing for a more natural appearance.
Best Bulbs to Plant in the Fall
- Daffodils
- Crocuses
- Snowdrops
- Tulips
- Hyacinths
- Irises
- Alliums (Ornamental Onions)
- Garlic
- Shallot
For more gardening tips, visit your local Feeds’n Needs and chat with one of our Experts!
Fall Lawn Care Tips
You’ve worked hard maintaining your lawn all summer, and now the fall season is right around the corner. Lawn care doesn’t stop once the weather gets colder; in fact, there are lots of things you can do to prepare your lawn for the winter months and help it thrive as soon as spring arrives! This blog covers our top 7 fall lawn care tips!
- Mow Your Lawn Shorter – As the temperature starts to drop in the fall, lawn growth slows down. To avoid grass from becoming matted, which can lead to mold over the winter, cut your grass short when you do your final mow of the season (late October – early November). Cut it down to 1.5″ – 2.5″ at most, as this length will prevent matting while ensuring your grass can continue to photosynthesize.
- Clean Up Leaves & Debris – As the leaves begin to fall in autumn, they may cover your lawn and block sunlight and nutrients from reaching the grass beneath them. We recommend raking up any areas with thick leaf coverage on your lawn, as well as cleaning up any sticks, garden tools, etc., that may be lying around. If left to decay on your lawn over the winter, leaves can become a soggy, gross mess, so it’s best to get rid of them in the fall.
- Dethatch – “Thatch” is a layer of tangled grass, roots, leaves and other organic material that builds up over time, forming a layer between the soil and your actively growing grass. If left unbothered, thatch can make it difficult for new grass to grow and block nutrients from reaching healthy grass roots. Use a rake to gently scratch the top layer of soil on your lawn, pulling up the thatch layer in the process. Dethatching your lawn in the fall will make it much easier for new grass to start growing in the spring.
- Water Your Lawn – As the weather turns colder in the fall, it’s easy to forget to keep watering your lawn. While growth slows down in the fall, the roots of your grass are still growing and developing and need water to remain healthy! Since you don’t have to worry about heat evaporation in the fall, your lawn doesn’t need to be watered as often as it would in the summer. If rainfall isn’t enough to keep it watered, water your lawn with at least a half inch of water once per week to prevent it from getting too dry.
- Apply a Fall Fertilizer – Fertilizing your lawn in the fall will deliver nutrients to your grass, helping it to develop stronger roots and profound root growth. Excess nutrients will be stored over the winter so when spring arrives, your lawn can tap into these stored nutrients to help it start growing again. Avoid fertilizers high in nitrogen in the fall; instead, choose one with higher phosphorus and potassium levels, which help with root development and growth. Our experts recommend applying a 6-12-12 or 10-10-10 fertilizer in the fall, around 6 weeks before the ground freezes, for best results in the spring.
- Aerate – Aeration is the process of creating thousands of tiny holes in your lawn to break up compacted soil, allow oxygen flow, and encourage root growth. Compacted soil stores moisture and prevents drainage, which can eventually lead to problems like root rot and fungal issues. Aerating your lawn before overseeding in the fall allows the new seed to settle deep within the soil and start growing strong roots.
- Overseed Your Lawn – Overseeding is a great way to fill in any thin or bare spots on your lawn. When you overseed in the fall before the ground freezes, the seeds will have the chance to germinate and start growing strong roots so that when the snow melts in the spring, new grass will be ready to sprout! We recommend seeding your lawn in early fall (mid-August to late September) before it gets too cold to ensure your seed can germinate. Stop by your local Feeds’n Needs to grab a bag of lawn seed today!
By putting in the extra work in the fall, you’ll ensure a beautiful, healthy lawn in the spring, which you can enjoy for longer! Feeds’n Needs is your go-to store for lawn seed, fertilizer, and more. Stop in today and talk to one of our experts about how you can take your lawn care to the next level!
For more expert lawn care advice, check out these similar posts:
Overseeing Your Lawn in Spring
How to Maintain a Healthy Lawn
Guide to Harvesting Your Vegetable Garden
You took the time to make a garden plan, invest in quality seeds, nurture seedlings indoors, and carefully tend each plant. Now, the question is, when should you harvest your vegetable garden?
Seed packets and plant tags for transplants typically offer guidelines on growing times and maturity. They also list the number of days before maturity. However, those projections are not always a reliable indicator of vegetable maturity and ripeness. A chilly spring can delay ripening, whereas warmer-than-normal weather might hasten ripening. Soil fertility, lack of precipitation, or too much precipitation may also affect maturity. While days to maturity provide a baseline, gauging peak ripeness often requires hands-on assessment.
Best Practices for Harvesting
Timing: For most vegetables, the ideal time to harvest is in the morning, after the dew has dried but before the sun warms the plants. This timing preserves water content, ensuring leafy greens, beans, cucumbers, and squash are at their crispest. However, there are a few exceptions (such as tomatoes and peppers) when a lower water content is preferable. For these types of vegetables, it’s good to wait until there have been a few dry days and then pick them in the heat of the day, allowing the sugar content to be at its highest concentration, yielding optimum flavor.
Handling: To minimize plant damage and disease, gently harvest vegetables by twisting or cutting them off with clean tools like knives or scissors. Avoid stepping on plants, as healthy stems and foliage are crucial for sustained production.
Frequency: Regular harvesting encourages continuous production. Plants naturally cease fruiting once seeds reach maturity, underscoring the importance of consistent harvests to prolong yield.
Tips for Effective Harvesting
Flavor and Nutrition: Vegetables such as beans, peas, and summer squash are tastiest when young and tender. In contrast, tomatoes and winter squash develop full flavor when left to ripen fully on the vine.
Size Matters: While size often indicates maturity (consult seed packet specifics), practice and experience refine judgment on optimal harvest times for various vegetables.
Tool Selection: Use appropriate tools—like scissors for delicate crops and knives or pruners for tougher stems—to avoid plant damage and ensure clean cuts.
Environmental Considerations: Harvest early in the day for peak flavor and nutrition retention. Avoid harvesting during wet conditions to prevent disease spread and maintain vegetable quality.
Leafy Greens: Begin harvesting outer leaves first to promote continued growth of inner foliage in lettuces and similar plants.
By following these guidelines, you’ll maximize the flavor, nutrition, and longevity of your garden’s bounty, ensuring a rewarding harvest season. Happy harvesting!
Fore more garden related information, check out our other blogs:
What Type of Garden Best Suits Your Needs
Gardening Tips for Beginners
How to Successfully Grow a Vegetable Garden
Starting Seeds Indoors Using Peat Pellets
How to Grow a Salsa Garden
If you’re a fan of fresh, homemade salsa, then this is the perfect summer project for you! Planting your own salsa garden is not only beginner-friendly, but it’s also a source of immense satisfaction. Follow these simple instructions and you’ll soon be enjoying delicious, fresh salsa made from ingredients you’ve grown yourself.
Step 1: Select an area that receives at least 6 hours of sunlight daily. A 4×4-foot raised bed or square-foot garden will grow plenty of ingredients for fresh salsa. If you are starting with a new bed, starting small (4×4) will give you a good idea of how much produce you actually use. You can change your garden plan accordingly for the following year. Your salsa garden can be in-ground, in a raised bed, or grown in containers.
Step 2: The next step is deciding what you want to put into your salsa. The basic ingredients are tomatoes, peppers, garlic, onions, and cilantro. Feel free to experiment with other vegetables, such as hot peppers and corn. Feeds’n Needs has a large selection of Vesey’s Seeds to choose from.
Step 3: Follow the growing steps on the back of your seed packages for the best results. If you’re planting from seed, the rule of thumb is to bury the seeds 2-3 times the debit of their diameter.
Step 4: If you’re starting with plants that you started indoors, bury them as deep as they are planted in their original container.
Step 5: Water, weed, fertilize, and harvest weekly throughout the growing season. Enjoy the abundance of fresh veggies and herbs and create a personalized salsa based on your taste buds!
How to Keep Wild Animals Out of Your Garden
Growing a garden requires lots of time and dedication, so it can be frustrating when wild animals come along and help themselves to your plants! Getting rid of these pests can be tricky but not impossible, and as long as you know what type of animal intruder you’re dealing with, you can find a solution to keep them out!
Repellants – Repellants are applied on or around plants to deter animals from snacking in your garden. Since not all repellants are food-safe, be sure to read the label before applying it to any fruits or vegetables. Reapply every 5 – 7 days since they can lose their effectiveness over time, or rain can wash the repellants away.
There are two types of animal repellants typically sold in stores:
- Taste: These repellants contain ingredients that taste bad to animals, so when an animal tries to nibble on your plants, it will be met with a foul taste that won’t have it coming back for seconds.
- Smell: These repellants are formulated to trick pesky wildlife into thinking that a rival animal or predator is already in the area by producing a scent that mimics other animals.
A longtime customer favourite for repelling thieving wildlife is Critter Ridder animal repellant. Available in granular or liquid formulations, Critter Ridder’s foul taste effectively repels unwanted animals when applied on or around plants.
Fencing – Animals can’t eat what’s growing in your garden if they can’t get to it. When done right, building a fence is one of the most effective ways to keep out pests. The key to protecting your garden with a fence is knowing what animals you need to keep out. Fences can be built from materials like chicken wire, hardware cloth, wood, plastic mesh, etc. They can be a permanent installation or set up temporarily during the gardening season. Regardless of what you use to build your fence and how tall you make it, we recommend extending it into the ground by at least one foot to prevent pests like groundhogs from burrowing underneath it. Visit your local Feeds’n Needs to see our selection of fencing options and ask our experts which one may work best for you.
Scare Tactics – Another way to deter wildlife in your garden is to scare them away. Things like scarecrows, motion sensor lights or sprinklers, reflective tape or faux predator decoys can spook animals and prevent them from coming near your garden. These tools may lose effectiveness over time as animals become familiar with them, so frequently switching up your scare methods and moving things around can help maintain the element of surprise. Find products like scare-eye balloons, buzzline bird scarers and more at Feeds’n Needs and say goodbye to pests around your home!
Plants – Did you know certain plants can help keep animals away from your garden? Like us, animals have food preferences, and most aren’t fans of plants that are incredibly fragrant, have fuzzy or prickly foliage, or have a bitter taste. Try planting some of these fragrant plants around your garden to help deter unwanted wildlife:
- Lavender
- Marigolds
- Sage
- Mint (Be careful when planting mint, as it can quickly take over your yard!)
- Chrysanthemums
- Geraniums
- Lemongrass
Raised Garden Beds – Depending on what type of animal you’re trying to deter, planting in raised garden beds or window boxes may help prevent damage from pests. You can even go a step further and put fencing around your raised beds to protect your plants from deer and other wildlife that could easily reach a raised bed.
Contain Garbage, Compost, Birdseed – Keep bins of garbage, compost, birdseed, or other food sources secure in sealed containers to prevent pests like raccoons, skunks, and squirrels from sniffing it out and drawing them into your yard.
Our experts want to help you get the most out of your garden this year, so stop in at your local Feeds’n Needs to find the supplies you need to keep the pests away! While you’re there, remember to check out our garden section and stock up on Vesey’s seeds, fertilizers, gardening tools and more!
Disclaimer: Product availability and selection may vary by store. Please check your local store for availability.
Looking for more gardening tips and tricks? Check out our other blogs!
What Type of Garden Best Suits Your Needs
Starting Seeds Indoors Using Peat Pellets
Gardening Tips for Beginners
Starting Seeds Indoors Using Peat Pellets
If you’re looking for an easy, mess-free way to start your seeds indoors, try peat pellets! These discs of dehydrated peat moss, held together with biodegradable mesh, are simple to use, require minimal maintenance, and can be transplanted directly into the ground once your seeds have sprouted.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- Flat Seed Starting Tray and a Plastic Dome Lid – The SunBlaster Nanodome is ideal, offering a tray, lid, and grow light.
- Seeds – Pick up your favourite Vesey’s seed varieties at your local Feeds’n Needs.
- Plant Markers – Use these to mark your rows or sections of seeds in the peat pellets to avoid mixing them up. Also, note the date you planted the seeds.
To start seeds indoors using peat pellets, follow these six basic steps:
1. Arrange your pellets – Place the pellets in rows of 5 or according to the number of seeds per variety. This simplifies labelling.
2. Expand/soak pellets – Pour warm water over the pellets, submerging them about 2 cm from the top of the tray. Allow 10 minutes for full expansion, then drain any excess water.
3. Plant seeds – Tear the top of the netting on each pellet slightly. Use a pencil, toothpick, or your finger to create a small hole for the seeds. Plant 2 seeds per pellet and lightly cover them.
4. Label pellets – Always label your seeds! Mark the rows with masking tape on the tray or label each pellet individually.
5. Cover with dome lid – Cover the tray with the plastic dome lid and place it in a warm location. Seeds do not require light to sprout, so they do not need to be initially under the grow lights. Water only when the pellets look dry.
6. Place under lights and remove dome – Once the seeds have sprouted, remove the plastic dome and place the tray under the grow lights. If more than one seed sprouts in a pellet, pinch off or cut the extra seedling, leaving one healthy plant per pellet.
Pellet Benefits:
Peat pellets retain sufficient moisture for seed germination and ensure good drainage to prevent overwatering. The netting around the pellet allows air circulation through the root ball. Additionally, pellets reduce transplant shock since the roots experience minimal disturbance during transplanting.
Our experts at Feeds’n Needs know how exciting gardening season is! Visit your local Feeds’n Needs and check out our gardening section for everything you need to start seeds indoors with peat pellets.
For more helpful gardening tips and tricks, check out our related posts.
What Type of Garden Best Suits Your Needs
Garden Planning for Spring and Summer
Gardening Tips for Beginners
How to Successfully Grow a Vegetable Garden
How to Sprout Your Own Seeds
Why We Need Bees
Over the last 15 years, bee populations in North America have been declining at an alarming rate. Since then, many “Save the Bees” campaigns and organizations have been formed to protect these special creatures. But why are bees so important? Let’s find out!
Where Have the Bees Gone?
There are 5 primary threats to native bee species that have caused their populations to dwindle quickly:
- Habitat Loss: Human development and the expansion of industrial agriculture have destroyed the habitats of many wildlife species, including bees.
- Climate Change: Dramatic shifts in temperature over the years have resulted in flowering plants growing further north, leaving populations of pollinators who relied on them behind. These changes in weather patterns and ecosystems have made it difficult for native species to find food and shelter that was once abundant.
- Chemical Pesticides: Chemical pesticides are being used more and more every year to prevent and kill unwanted pests and weeds. However, these harmful pesticides are also an enormous threat to non-target species like bees and other pollinators and are considered a leading cause of bee mortality rates.
- Invasive Plant Species: New plants that are introduced to an environment in which they are not native to may overtake many of the area’s native plant species that local pollinators rely on for survival. Many native bee species diets have evolved to feed from local plants, so when these plants are overthrown by non-native species, these bees lose their food source.
- Diseases & Parasites: With the introduction of non-native plants come non-native diseases and parasites that pose a serious threat to bee populations.
Why are Bees Important?
The importance of bees to sustaining human and animal life cannot be understated. Bees’ contributions to our world can be broken down into 5 main categories:
- Pollination & Agriculture: Did you know that bees are responsible for an estimated 1 of every 3 bites of food eaten? That’s right! Most of the world’s flowering plants rely on pollinators in order to reproduce; this includes most fruits, vegetables, trees, and shrubs! Pollination occurs when pollinators like bees, birds, and butterflies travel from one plant to the next. Pollen collected from one plant is distributed to the next, resulting in cross-pollination and fertilization of the plant! Without bees providing us with food through pollination, humans would lose the ability to have a healthy, diverse diet.
- The Food Chain: It’s not only us humans who rely on pollinators for food – Wildlife does too! Plants and trees are a main source of food and shelter for many wildlife species, and without pollinators to keep plants reproducing, the wildlife who rely on them may not survive. Even domesticated animals rely on pollination; for example, cows eat alfalfa, which is pollinated by bees, and we humans rely on cows for dairy and beef. So, you see, bees are responsible for entire food chains, and without them, humans wouldn’t be the only species to suffer the consequences.
- Economy: Because bees are responsible for so much of the food we eat, they contribute greatly to our economy. It is estimated that bees contribute upwards of 15 billion dollars to the value of crop production each year in the United States as a result of the crops that they pollinate. Additionally, the beekeeping industry serves as an income for many families by selling products made from bee wax, honey, etc., as well as the sale of beekeeping equipment.
- Biodiversity & Ecosystems: By pollinating many of the trees, shrubs, and plants in our environment, bees help ensure the biodiversity of ecosystems! Additionally, the trees pollinated by bees release oxygen for us to breathe and help prevent erosion by stabilizing the soil with their deep roots!
- Nutrition & Crop Quality: Bees and other pollinators are invaluable to the growth of crops, ensuring higher yields, and potentially improving the nutrient value of the foods produced as a result! Without bees, human’s nutritional needs would be difficult to meet!
Needless to say, bees are essential to sustaining life and maintaining a healthy, diverse environment. Without these incredible creatures and all the work they do for us, every living thing would feel the impact. At Feeds’ n Needs, we understand the importance of saving the bees! Be sure to check out our selection of beekeeping products (only available at select Feeds’n Needs locations). Our stores carry a large selection of Vesey’s flower seeds; ask one of our experts to help you find varieties that your local pollinators will love!
Disclaimer: Product availability and selection may vary by store. Please check your local store for availability.
Overseeding Your Lawn in Spring
Is your lawn looking a little dull after a long winter? Don’t worry; the Feeds’n Needs Experts are here to share our top tips and products for bringing your lawn back to life this spring! From preparing your soil and overseeding to fertilizing and maintenance, this blog covers all the basics of springtime lawn care! Great lawns start with Feeds’n Needs!
Prepare Your Soil
Before you can seed your lawn, you need to prepare the soil.
- Mow the grass: Set your lawn mower to the lowest setting and cut your grass short. Bag the clippings or add them to your compost bin.
- Rake the lawn: Use a rake to scratch up the top layer of soil on your lawn and remove any dead grass or root buildup called thatch. Thatch buildup can prevent essential water and nutrients from reaching the soil beneath it and cause your grass to look dull and unhealthy.
- Aerate the soil: Aerate your soil during the spring and fall growing seasons. Aeration helps prevent thatch buildup while allowing water and nutrients to penetrate deeper into the soil and reach the roots of your grass.
Overseeding
Overseeding your lawn in the spring helps cover up any thin or bare spots in your grass and encourages new growth of thick, healthy grass. At Feeds’n Needs, we carry a variety of quality grass seed blends. Ask our Experts which one is best suited for your lawn!
- Choose a grass seed: When choosing grass seed for your lawn, consider the amount of sunlight or shade it receives and whether you’ll need cool-season or warm-season grass seed. Cool-season grasses are best for planting in spring and early fall when the soil temperature reaches 10 degrees Celsius.
- Spreading grass seed: To ensure the grass seed is spread evenly across your lawn, fill your spreader and adjust the density setting according to the recommendation on your seed bag.
- Let it grow: Once you’ve spread your grass seed, you’ll need to water your lawn frequently to keep the soil moist and allow the seeds to germinate.
Fertilizing
Once you’ve spread your grass seed and the new grass has begun growing, adding fertilizer will give your lawn the nutrients it needs to grow and remain healthy.
- Choose a fertilizer: When new grass begins growing in the spring, a high-nitrogen fertilizer will encourage new leaf growth. We recommend the Cavendish slow-release 21-7-7 fertilizer for springtime lawn maintenance.
- Spreading fertilizer: Fill your spreader and adjust the settings according to the recommendation on your fertilizer bag. Spread the fertilizer evenly across your lawn, ensuring each area gets covered.
- Water: Once you’ve spread your fertilizer, continue to water your lawn regularly to allow the fertilizer to sink into the soil and bring nutrients to your growing grass seedlings.
Maintenance
- Routine watering: Newly seeded and fertilized lawns need about an inch of water each week to promote root growth and vitality. Lightly water once or twice a day to keep the soil moist. Watering may not be necessary if it rains enough in your area.
- Mowing habits: When your lawn is freshly seeded, avoid mowing until the new grass reaches about 3 inches in height to prevent damage.
- Regularly Fertilize: Fertilize your lawn every eight weeks to support lush, healthy grass. Visit your local Feeds’n Needs to find fertilizer for every season!
When it comes to keeping a healthy lawn, Feeds’ n Needs is your one-stop shop for all the essentials! Check out our great selection of fertilizers, grass seeds, and more, and don’t forget to ask our Experts which products will work best for you!
For more expert advice on how to maintain a healthy lawn, check out our blog on How to Maintain a Healthy Lawn.
Garden Projects for Spring
The weather is getting warmer, and it’s finally time to start making your garden plans! It’s not quite time to plant yet, but you can begin many other projects in the spring to ensure your garden is ready to roll once the frost is gone!
Create a Garden Journal:
Keep track of what you’ve planted in the past, what grew well and what didn’t, where you planted things last year so you can rotate crops, tape seed package tags to pages, sketch out garden bed ideas—the list goes on! Keeping a detailed journal of your garden is a great way to help you remember what worked well for you in previous years or even new ideas you might like to try!
Start Seeds Indoors:
Many seed varieties, especially those that take longer to grow, such as tomatoes and peppers, can be started indoors. Plant your seeds in a shallow container about 2 to 3 ½ inches deep with drainage holes. Peat pots, pellets, paper cups, or shallow compartmented trays all work well.
Use a soilless seed starting mix, ideally made up of peat, perlite, vermiculite, and added nutrients. These mixes are light, improve drainage, and aid water retention, making them best for seedling germination.
Follow the planting directions on your seed packages to determine the depth in which to plant your seeds. Then, place your seed containers in a warm location (ideally 18 – 22 degrees Celsius) where they will have access to light for about 12 to 14 hours per day. Keep the soil moist and cover the seed pots or trays with plastic or damp paper towel to allow seeds to germinate.
Start a Compost Bin:
Commonly called “black gold,” compost does wonders for the soil and plants growing within it. Made up of recycled matter such as kitchen scraps and lawn clippings, compost adds vital nutrients to the soil, helping to maintain its structure, porosity, and density, maintain proper pH balance and moisture, and even prevent weeds! Composting is a great way to prevent unnecessary waste from ending up in landfills, helping your soil and plants thrive!
Test Your Soil:
Test your soil for deficiencies before you plant! Pick up a soil test kit at your local Feeds ‘n Needs to test your soil’s pH, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash levels. The plants you grow need to be able to get their nutrients from the soil they grow in, so if your soil’s nutrient levels are too high or too low, it could cause problems down the road that are much easier to identify and fix before you plant!
Prepare Your Pots and Containers:
Make sure you have all the pots and containers you will need for all the planting you plan on doing. If you have containers that you used last year, get rid of any old soil and scrub them down with powdered laundry detergent and water. Once clean, disinfect the containers with a mixture of bleach and water. If you are new to planting or just need some new planting essentials, we carry a variety of plant pots, containers, and seed-starting kits!
Clean Your Tools:
Before you can start tending to your garden, make sure that all your tools are cleaned up and ready to go. Wash off any dirty tools and check their condition. If some of your tools have become rusty, try soaking them in a solid black tea bath or use sandpaper or a wire bristle brush to shine them up again. Take this time to tighten up any screws or bolts that may have come loose on any of your tools as well.
Our Experts know how exciting it is once the snow melts and gardening season is just within reach. But don’t forget to take advantage of springtime to make sure you have everything ready and planned out. We want to help you ensure that when it comes time to plant, you are more than prepared! Stop into your local Feeds ‘n Needs and check out our gardening section. We’ve got everything you need to prep, plant, and maintain your garden!
For more helpful gardening tips and tricks, check out our related posts!
Link 1 – Gardening Tips for Beginners
Link 2 – How to Sprout Your Own Seeds
Link 3 – Garden Planning for Spring and Summer
Sources:
https://www.almanac.com/content/3-simple-diy-soil-tests
https://www.farmandfleet.com/blog/early-spring-lawn-garden-projects/
https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/gardening/a31747273/easy-gardening-projects-spring/
https://www.countryliving.com/gardening/garden-ideas/a30753842/how-to-start-seeds/?psafe_param=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=arb_ga_clv_md_pmx_hybd_mix_ca_18700871953&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5svmw6P0hAMVdpJoCR1xhwOBEAAYAyAAEgKKOfD_BwE
https://www.veseys.com/ca/growing-from-seeds?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_bmPoqz0hAMV55KDBx11XwRdEAAYAiAAEgIhLvD_BwE
Essential Gardening Tools for Beginners
If you’re new to gardening, you may be wondering where to start. Before you can plant your garden, it’s helpful to have all the essentials you’ll need to ensure that your garden’s preparation, maintenance and harvesting are easy and hassle-free. Our list of the top 12 essential gardening tools is an excellent guide for first-time gardeners looking for a place to get started:
Gardening Gloves:
Keeping your hands clean, dry, and safe while you work. A good pair of breathable and waterproof gardening gloves is a must-have for every new gardener.
Garden Hoe:
A garden hoe is a useful tool for cultivating the garden, stirring up and mounding soil, and dislodging weeds. You can buy multiple types of garden hoes, each better suited to a specific task.
Garden Fork:
This tool comes in handy when getting your vegetable plots ready for planting. Garden forks come in different shapes and sizes but are generally used for breaking up stony soil, aerating sod and digging up root crops.
Shovel:
Shovels serve many purposes when gardening or working around the yard. A sturdy, long-handled shovel is perfect for digging large holes, moving and turning soil, digging out perennials to divide or transplant, and so much more. This is one tool you’ll definitely want to have on hand!
Garden Rake:
A long-handled tool with a wide head and teeth on the end, a garden rake works well to break down soil into a fine tilth that’s best for planting seeds. These rakes are also useful for getting rid of debris in your soil.
Spade:
Garden spades are essential tools for landscapers and come in handy in the garden, too. Used to break through ground and chop through tree roots and tough soil. Spades are helpful when excavating gardens, removing clumps of grass or roots, and cutting garden margins. These tools can also be used for soil aeration and turning soil.
Hand Trowel:
An invaluable tool in the garden, hand trowels are perfect for digging small holes for seeding and transplanting, turning small amounts of soil, and digging up weeds. Try finding a trowel with depth measurements to help you out when planting!
Hand Cultivator:
While these tools are available in various sizes, keeping a small handheld cultivator in your gardening tool kit will be helpful when you first start out. Great for reaching smaller areas where large tools won’t fit, hand cultivators have teeth that are perfect for pulling up pesky weeds between plants and digging or breaking up soil.
Pruners:
A good pair of hand pruners is perfect for trimming small branches, cutting through roots, and dividing root balls. There are various hand pruner options, with certain types better suited for specific tasks, and some even designed to minimize muscle strain and discomfort while using them.
Scissors:
A good, sharp pair of scissors serves many purposes while working in the garden. You can use them to deadhead flowers, harvest vegetables, snip herbs, cut twine or ties holding up plants and even cut open packages of seeds or fertilizers! The uses for this tool are endless!
Zip Ties or Twine:
Useful for securing plants to a support system like trellises, stakes, cages, fences, etc.
Hose & Watering Can:
Once you plant your garden, watering your crops as they grow is a daily task. A garden hose and nozzle with multiple watering settings are essential to ensure that your plants get the water they require to grow. A watering can is also beneficial to supply water to areas where your hose may not reach.
Having the proper tools on hand will make your time in the garden more efficient, precise, and safe while ensuring your plants’ health and maintenance. Stop by your local Feeds’ n Needs to view our selection of various garden tools, Vesey’s seeds, soils, and fertilizers. Let our Experts answer any questions about getting started in the garden!
For more expert advice on getting your garden started, check out our related blogs:
Garden Planning for Spring and Summer
