It’s spring! In the upcoming weeks we will be filing outside, digging in the dirt and preparing our gardens and planters for summer. In this 3 part series I will share the simple things that I do to get ready for planting season. First up, soil preparation.

Whether you are growing flowers in your pots or veggies, your old soil has been sitting outside all winter and has been depleted of necessary minerals and nutrients. Let’s beautify our pots!

Soil Preparation Step 1:

Clear your pot of last years flowers. Stir up the dirt bringing the rich soil from the bottom up to the dry bits on top. Clear old roots and debris that has collected over winter. Pull out as many old roots as you can and dig down as far as you can. Mix it up!

Step 2:

To get your soil ready to roll, you need to replace the nutrients that were lost. Personally I like a time release fertilizer. I don’t trust myself with liquid or powder fertilizers and I worry I might be a little heavy handed. Choose the fertilizer you like best and mix it in your soil. If needed, mix in some new top soil and churn the dirt so it is mixed evenly through.

Step 3:

Now it is just a waiting game. Hopefully you will get some rain to release the fertilizer into the soil and set up a lovely mix for your new plants. If it doesn’t rain, go ahead and water down the soil and let it dry. Mix it up again and let the fertilizer do its job.

That’s it for my simple soil preparation tips. Check back for part 2 of the outdoor planter series where we head off to the nursery in search of the plants and flowers that will decorate our pots for summer. Plant shopping and designing planters is easily my favorite part of the process. Visit SuburbanSill on Youtube for all our plant DIY and growing tips.

If you are into plant DIY, check out this post growing your own Oxalis triangularis!