Now that spring is here, you likely notice a change in your garden.  The weather is much warmer than winter and fall but isn’t quite as warm as summer, which could be the perfect reason to spend more time outdoors making your garden one of a kind. Blooms you planted in the previous season are starting to show themselves, and you may need to adjust the soil and how often you tend to the garden to make sure all your plants, trees, and shrubs look their best throughout the entire season. Here are a few spring gardening tips to keep in mind.

Keep Your Hands Clean

While you may not be thinking about this before you go out to tend the garden, you may want to make sure your fingernails don’t fill with dirt that can be difficult to remove. Before you go out into the garden, run your nails across some bar soap. This will fill the nails and keep dirt from getting trapped inside. Once you’re finished gardening for the day, remove the soap with a nail brush. This tip comes in handy if you have an event to attend after gardening.

Salt Removal and Clay Pots

Salt tends to collect on clay pots, and if these pots are a part of your spring garden, you can get rid of the salt deposits with a solution of equal parts white vinegar, isopropyl alcohol, and water. Put the ingredients in a spray bottle and apply it directly to the pot before scrubbing the solution away with a plastic brush. Before you plant any new flower in the pot, allow it to dry. Clay pots can also serve as a cover for small plants in the evening or during the cooler days in spring. If you usually forget to bring twine to the garden while you’re planting or pulling plants, form the twine into a ball, place it in the pot, and place one end of the twine through the small hole at the bottom of the clay pot before turning the pot upside down. This way, you’ll have twine on hand whenever you need it.

Line Preservation and Measuring

To keep your string trimmer liner from breaking or jamming, spray it with vegetable oil before putting it in the trimmer. You can also use garden tools with long handles as measuring sticks. Place the tool on the ground next to a tape measure and write the correct measurements on the garden tool with a magic marker, using the tape measure as a guide. This will help you properly space plants that need room for the roots to grow.

Pest Control

Finally, if you’ve got aphids in your garden, keep them at bay by blasting them with the garden hose. You can also use insecticidal soap to get rid of these pests, or you can use tape. Wrap the tape around your hand with the sticky side facing outward. Gently pat the leaves of your plants when you notice that there are aphids. Be sure to treat the underside of the leaves as well, since aphids and other small pests like to hide there.