8 Tips for Getting Your Garden Ready for Spring the Eco-Friendly Way

In the winter months, you likely don’t spend much time in your garden, especially if you live in a climate where snow and near-freezing temperatures are the norm. If you’re lucky enough to live in a more temperate climate – California or Florida, for example – you might be able to do a minimal amount of gardening.

However, when the end of winter is starting to approach, it’s time to get your garden and your gardening habits back on track and your tools organized. Use these eight tips to get your green thumb back in shape and make sure you’re ready for the warm weather in an eco-friendly fashion:

1. Use empty pill boxes or bottles to organize your seeds. If you want to take it a step further for the best results, keep your seeds in a larger container by type or variety and make sure you label them properly with a waterproof marker that won’t rub off if the box gets wet.

2. Add a calendar to your garden shed to help you track when you plant, weed and water your garden in the spring. You can even go ahead and plan ahead of time so you don’t plant seeds before or after they should be planted in order to make the most out of the growing season. Keeping track of your water schedule can also help you reduce water waste and maintain a truly eco-friendly garden.

3. Use large wall hooks that you no longer need in your garage or home to hang items like garden hoses and tools. That will keep you from buying more, protect your tools from rain and dirt, and organize your garden shed or workspace so you can get down to work.

4. Reuse an older milk bottle container for carrying your hand tools around the garden. Everything from a small hand shovel, to a pair of garden gloves, to a seed container can be transported in your garden in one, and it will keep you from having to throw it away. If you don’t have a milk container, a small apple crate can work just as well. Grocery stores and supermarkets are constantly throwing these away, and they’ll more than likely be happy to lend you a few if you ask.

5. Add a potting bench to your garden. A potting bench can help keep your plants healthy before they go in the ground, and you can reuse the bench in your garden year after year. Best of all, you won’t have to use disposable plastic to cover your plants.

6. Put a small toilet paper holder for items that you commonly use in your garden like twine and metal wire. You’ll be able to have it handy in your garage or shed and you’ll be reducing waste at the same time.

7. Use stackable bins or wooden containers for miscellaneous garden supplies to eliminate clutter in your garden. For a truly eco-friendly garden, buy bio-degradable plastic bins that you can recycle without guilt once they’re worn out.

8. Invest in a high-quality outdoor shelf that you can use to keep certain items handy for your garden. If you get an outdoor shelf, make sure it can withstand the weather, though you won’t want to put it right out in the rain.

Gardening can be a wonderful hobby, and it’s truly one of the most eco-friendly things you can do, especially if you’re growing things you can use in your own home and kitchen. However, you do still need to take some care when buying garden tools and things to organize them.

Whenever possible, reuse what you can for your garden, and try your best to stick with biodegradable, recyclable items.

This guest post is courtesy of Naomi Shaw, who is honored to have the opportunity to share some helpful garden organization tips with the readers of CraftFoxes, and personally loves writing about DIY projects.

What do you do to organize your garden? Share your tips below!

Here are some more eco-friendly gardening tips from Living Eco!