20 Essential Spring Gardening Tips for a Thriving Garden

Spring 2025

It’s been a long, wet, cold winter since we last wrote to you dear readers. Spring is here at last and with it comes the gift of the beauty of nature with its wildflowers, showers and rainbows. In the Wine Country we all live in and adore comes the greening of the hillsides, the chartreuse budding of oak and grape leaves, creeks and brooks bubbling and streaming full, prune and crabapple trees, quince and acacia bursting into white, pink and yellow flower above carpets of electric saffron mustard and purple lupine. The overall landscape suddenly becomes a beautiful impressionistic painting.

Birds of all kinds including the predators noisily establish their territories for nesting to raise their young, intelligently strategizing safety with proximity to food.  It is the sound and calls of all interconnected species waking up, from the skies to the smallest earth critters all in a well-orchestrated symphony. And, so, we too, awaken to belong with all of our senses in harmony with the goodness, truth and beauty of this season and The Spirit of Nature here and now.

Spring Gardening Tips and Checks:

1. Be sure your gardening tools are clean, sharp and in shape, ready to go.

2. Get packages of soil amendments good for different types of plants. Gardenia Mix for Japanese Maples, Camellias and Gardenias and Planting Mix for pots and hanging baskets. Both are available at Sonoma Mission Gardens.

3. Or, get a ½ yard pile or pick-up truck load full of 50-50 mushroom compost and native soil mix available at Sonoma Materials. They deliver.

4. Want to re-arrange some plants and transplant? Now’s the time before the soil goes dry and we still have a chance for showers. Be sure to prune back any dead wood before re-planting and do this in the morning to avoid any possible hot sun.

5. Very last chance for dormant spray on roses and fruit trees before they bloom and only when dry.  If they are already blooming don’t do it as it would be harmful to the birds and bees now awakening and hungry. Instead, wait to get lady bugs and preying mantis to do the job of eating those aphids.

6. Plant perennials like lavender, flowering shrubs and grasses. Be aware of shade versus full sun planting locations beforehand.

7. Plant worms. Find local worm farms.

8. Fertilize with emphasis on Grow. This fertilizer come in a blue bottle similar to B-12 for transplanting. Both are in liquid form to dilute and water in plants

9. Seed sunflowers and other annuals like California Poppies and grass. We recommend the no-mow variety of grass.

10. Prune

11. Weed but wait before taking out the pretty flowering natives until they dry out

12. Rake up any remaining leaves and twigs for your compost pile

13. Or burn debris if outside city limits but only after finding out from air quality control if it is a “burn day” or not. Inform your neighbors and local fire station you will be burning so they don’t freak out. Be sure to have a water hose nearby.

14. Dump any stagnant water where mosquitos breed and clean out any water features, filters and pumps

15. Get bat houses on your fences so they can do their job of insect control

16. For vegetable gardening wait a big longer for any tender starts until at least mid-April

17. Mulch with small bark and or gravel or decomposed granite

18. Check your irrigation system, batteries and emitters, any broken lines to get it ready to go

19. Check your pathway lights and clean any solar panels they may have

20. Check your umbrellas and outdoor furniture for any repairs and or replacement

Get dirty and sweaty and just do it! It’s a busy, busy time! We have 2 months for the most successful planting of the year and that is now. By mid-May it is often too hot and stressful for competing rooting and blooming.

Happy gardening!