From Dormant to Dazzling: Expert Secrets to Awaken Your 2025 Garden’s Potential

As Spring approaches, it’s time to unlock your garden’s full potential for 2025! Whether you’re a first-time gardener or looking to improve your green-thumb skills, this guide will be a strategic roadmap to Spring garden preparation for North American gardeners. Don’t let the changing season catch you off guard—with the right planning, you can maximize every growing day and set yourself up for a bountiful vegetable harvest or a stunning flower garden throughout the year.

Early Spring Seed Starting

An often overlooked step when preparing for gardening in the Early Spring, is seed starting! (If you’re used to simply buying seedlings, you can skip this step and head to the next section) Hopefully you have an idea of what you’d like to plant in the garden this year, but if not, we covered a lot of that in our last blog post! Once you’ve made your selections, it’s time to source your seeds. Across North America there are plenty of local seed suppliers. Support local businesses and if possible, physically go to your local seed supplier to ask questions about different plant varieties. You won’t find much better garden advice than from your local seed supplier. They’ll help immensely with unlocking your 2025 garden’s potential. Now, onto seed starting.

Biodegradable Seed Starting Containers

A simple way to start your 2025 seeds is with small indoor seed trays! Hopefully you already have your 2025 BigYellowBag ready and waiting, or maybe you have some Black Garden Soil leftover from last year to start seeds in. You can purchase seed starting trays, but we’ve had great success with simply using empty egg cartons to start seeds in. Once you have your seeds, soil, and a few empty egg cartons, it’s just a matter of timing! As a rule of thumb, you’ll want to start your seeds between 6-8 weeks before the last expected frost. In many North American locations, the May-long weekend is often thought of as the official start to the Spring growing season. After some quick math, you’re going to want to have your seeds started around late-March to early-April if you anticipate planting on the May-long weekend.

Once you have your seed-starting setup, your seeds are going to require sunlight and water once they’re planted in your tray or egg carton. Many gardeners use a nice sun-exposed window sill, but in some colder climates, these areas can be quite cold and inhospitable for your delicate seedlings. Consider investing in a small grow lamp that you can keep somewhere out of the way to ensure your seedlings are getting the light they need. (Note: Regular lamps are not sufficient for supporting plant growth. You’ll want to look for purpose-made grow lamps for this.)

Soil Assessment to Unleash Your 2025 Garden’s Potential

Before getting anything in the ground, you’re going to want to assess your garden soil and think about refreshing it with some BigYellowBag Black Garden Soil! If your soil is hard and compacted, light in colour, or has a bad odour to it, you’re definitely going to want to get your hands on some fresh Black Garden Soil. If there’s a lot of standing water, or if your garden soil has turned to complete mud, you may want to replace it as well. Think of your soil like food for your plants. All the essential nutrients that plants need to grow healthy and strong come from your garden soil.

The nutrients alone won’t do your garden any good however. Organic matter is key in order to make those nutrients bioavailable to your plants. Luckily here at BigYellowBag, we rigorously test our soil products. We ensure our soils have all the nutrients AND organic matter your plants will need throughout the year. We test for adequate levels of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, and our organic matter tests show results as high as 50%! Most soils have organic matter contents around 3-6%.

Vegetable & Flower Planting Timelines

With the May-long weekend in mind as the date to get planting in the garden, it’s important to make a plan for your flowers and decorative plants as well! Many experienced gardeners will already have their perennial bulbs in the ground since last Fall, like hyacinth and tulip bulbs. If you’re new to gardening however, you probably didn’t plan ahead enough to get bulbs planted in the Fall… But don’t fret! In many places across North America, we have a wide variety of annuals available to bring colour to your gardens that can be planted at the same time as your vegetables. Marigolds, zinnias, and cosmos are just a few great annuals for most North American gardens. Marigolds are fantastic companion plants too, and you can read all about that concept here!

As for your started seedlings, you want to be confident that we’re well past the final frost before thinking about planting your delicate seedlings. The May-long weekend is generally accepted as the best time for planting. Be sure to monitor conditions closely in case things take a cold turn. Late frosts, even if they’re just in the morning, can be very detrimental to your vegetable or flower garden success.

Hostas for Your Garden’s Backdrop

Hostas are a very common green backdrop to many North American decorative gardens. They’re a great plant that you can work with early on in the spring! Hopefully you have some gardening friends that are willing to provide some divisions from their hostas. If you can’t find divided hostas, head to your local garden center and ask about their hosta selection. You’re going to want to get your divided hostas into the ground between 2-4 weeks before the last frost. They can be a great way to get your garden work started a little early.

As a general rule, you want the soil temperature to be around 50℉ (or 10℃) before planting your hostas. Be sure to give your hostas the best chance at success with BigYellowBag Black Garden Soil. Also plan to put them somewhere shady! Partially shaded locations are usually the best for hosta success. Do your best to keep new hosta shoots consistently moist, but don’t overwater. You want the soil to be moist, but you don’t want to have any water pooling or washing away soil. We’re planning to do a deep dive all about hostas, so keep your eyes out for that coming soon!

BigYellowBag is The Key to Awakening Your 2025 Garden’s Potential

Be sure to start your 2025 gardens with a proper foundation. Black Garden Soil grows everything better and your plants will thank you for using it! Have any questions about unleashing your 2025 garden’s potential? Ask away in the comments! We’re looking forward to kicking off the 2025 growing season!