Prepping Your Garden in Spring for Summer Bounty

Spring is here, and thousands of homeowners across the country are eyeballing their starter plants, heading to garden centers and plotting out where and what they'll be planting this year.

If you're a little late in launching plans for a home garden, experts say the coming weeks are the best time to get started. The good news is, with little effort and the right equipment, you can enjoy its beauty and harvest, whether in a garden compact enough for a corner of a deck or patio, or one expansive enough to grow food that sustains your family virtually year-round.

According to Brian Bath of “Modern Farmer” (modernfarmer.com), now’s the time to take your gas-powered equipment in for a seasonal tune-up and cleaning. While your power equipment is getting primed for work, Barth says to dig into a thorough check of your hand and digging tools:

• Sand off any rust using steel wool, use a sharpening stone to restore a sharp edge to the blades, and coat the blades and moving parts with a light penetrating oil. (A local hardware store will often offer these services if you’re not up for the task, Barth says.)

• Break the handle on a shovel or digging fork last year? If it’s a good quality tool, it’s worth buying a new handle and replacing it, rather than tossing the whole thing in a landfill. Some gardeners go so far as to sharpen the digging blade of their shovels with a coarse file each year, but at the very least, wash off any accumulated dirt, dry down the blade, and spray it with penetrating oil to ward off rust.

Reprinted with permission from RIS Media. (c)2016. All rights reserved.