Simple Steps for Cleaning Up the Yard and Garden

While the seeds are getting a head start indoors and before we start planting anything new outside my husband and I start thinking about cleaning up the yard and garden beds.

Since our winters can be mild some people head outside as early as late January because the call of the yard is so loud.

I like to keep warm and dry as long as possible so it's only when things look unbearably unkempt that I venture out there.

Remove Weeds

Probably one of the worst jobs in garden clean up. Removing weeds and cultivating garden beds takes work. In the beginning, I didn't use the right tools and got really frustrated. A couple of years ago I bought the Garden Weasel Garden Claw and love it! I had spotted my neighbor using it one day and asked her about it. She loaned it to me and I was hooked. My husband poo pooed it afterwards, preferring to go the hard way and use only muscle route. But then he had a big patch of land to cultivated and I loaned it to him. He was hooked! So now he uses it.

Other ways I removed weeds are simply by hand. After a good rain the roots are nice and loose and I can just pull them up. I purchased Grandpa's Weeder last year and it's been awesome. When you see those ugly weeds in your yard or garden just place this over them, step on it, and tilt back. Pull up that ugly weed!

Weeds are an ongoing problem and so I just look at them as a regular garden duty. I don't use chemicals to get to them. If you do have a weed problem in an area that you won't be trying to grow anything (driveway, sidewalk) I have heard cleaning strength vinegar is the way to go.

Here are those weeding tools in a list

• Garden Weasel Garden Claw
• Grandpa's Weeder
• Cleaning strength vinegar

Landscaping

In our home garden cleanup also means tackling the lawn and making things pretty.  Both my husband and I take turns mowing the lawn. We try to get to it on Saturdays but if we've been really busy sometimes we'll tackle it mid week. My husband prefers the Kobalt brand mower at Lowe's for this job.

I also do the edging of our lawn. My same neighbor gave me a tutorial on how to edge when we bought the Black and Decker Landscape Edger and Trimmer. She saw how I kept messing up and took pity on me (she has since moved but we remain good friends). I had even watched a few youtube videos and no such luck. Now I'm an old pro and have even found I can use the weed whacker for edging.

For more outdoor cleanup we employ the use of a leaf blower (yaaay) and a Sun Joe Pressure washer which makes our porch and driveway look sparkly new). The pressure washer part isn't really gardening but in our home it all goes hand in hand.

We also take this time to create any new beds and borders we want. This is all DIY so if that's not your cup of tea I recommend finding someone good in your area to help you with this.

Start your garden seeds indoors in very early spring

Because of our late outdoor gardening time (late April) sometimesI like to get a head start on my vegetable gardening by sowing seeds indoors. I tend to try different things each year but one thing remains the same and that's the need for a lot of light!

Not many people that I know who garden start their vegetables from seeds but it's a great way to save money on what can turn into an expensive hobby if you're not careful.  The main thing I start from seeds are tomatoes. They usually fare better than the ones I buy from the store and I can try all sorts of varieties. I also sometimes start peppers and zucchini from seed.

To grow these items in doors I use the windows I have on the northern and southern sides of my home. It's a little tricky because we have a cat and so I try and set something up in one of the rooms with good windows.

I've used different seed starting setups over the years. I went from using a simple garden bulb to the Jumpstart T5 Grow Light System (Which was actually okay but it was not as sturdy as I wanted and took up more room than I had. I gave it away.) and finally ended up with The Sunblaster Micro Grow Light (that's it in the image above in a south facing window). And this time I also purchased extra bulbs!

I do have a love hate relationship with starting seeds indoors. The gentle hardening off my plants, sometimes as late as May, can be difficult with high winds and cooler weather (even though threat of frost is gone). I keep my fingers crossed that a stiff wind doesn't take my poor plant babies out before they've had a chance to set down roots.

And that's how I start the vegetable seeds. I'm not great at it but I keep at it.

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Start your garden seeds indoors in very early spring