A Spring Cleaning Checklist for Your Farm

Springtime is here!

As Mother Nature’s New Year, ‘tis the season to make a fresh start on your small-to-mid-size farm. Now’s the time to sweep out all the old stuff hanging around to prep for the growing season!

To get your farm in ship-shape, add these tasks to your spring cleaning checklist:

• Tend the gardens: Pull out old plants and amend the soil.
• De-clutter the barn and outbuildings: Give them a solid sweeping to clear out last year’s dirt accumulations. While you’re at it, give the windows a good scrub to really let the sunshine come through! Also, organize shelves, cupboards, and storage areas. Take inventory. Anything you are low on, add to your farm store shopping list. Anything you no longer have use for, toss out to make space for the new.
• Eliminate weeds: Grab your propane torch (being mindful of the day’s elements, how much you burn at a time, and local regulations) to burn off weeds along ditches and fence lines. Finish off tall, dead grasses to create space and opportunity for new growth.
• Trim back shrubs and fruits: Prune shrubs to their optimal shape and size before the springtime leaves really begin to bloom. Take off dead canes on blackberry and raspberry bushes and cut them back before they grow out of control.
• Flip your compost: Disperse it in perennial beds, the vegetable garden, and incorporate the organic matter into the top inch of the soil. When you’re tending the gardens, cut up non-diseased plant debris and toss it in the compost to keep up with your recycling progress.
• Wash plant containers: To ward off disease in your seedlings, give the containers you’ll use for plants in the summer a thorough cleanse.

Let the spring cleaning begin!

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