A vibrant garden bed adjacent to a fresh grass lawn, featuring cream and pink blooms and foliage with sun highlights.
Inspiration

How to keep your garden beds happy and healthy

Spring is often described as ‘planting season’. Before you start, some preparation will help you get garden beds that will produce healthy plants, lots of flowers, and plenty of growth. Also, here’s how you can dig the perfect hole for new plants.

RYOBI TEAM Tue, 09/30/2025 - 12:04
In This Article
A person using a RYOBI planting and digging tool to dig holes into a garden bed in a front yard, ready for planting.

Start planting

OK, it’s time to get your hands dirty! Take a critical look at what your garden is lacking and head to your local nursery (for plant advice, too). If your soil has compacted over winter, loosen it with either a garden fork, a cultivator or even a motorised planting and digging tool. One with a 125mm auger will allow you to dig the perfect hole for new plants from the nursery, too. Remove any weeds as you go so they won’t compete for nutrients with your new additions! 

Tip: if you’re planting in a bed that doesn’t have a retaining wall between it and the grass, running an edger along the boundary will help stop your grass roots from creeping in.

 

A person using a RYOBI garden sprayer to spray their lawn, showing foliage in the background.

Fertilise and mulch

Once you’ve added new plants, trimmed and shaped your existing shrubs, and aerated the soil around the plants, it’s time to add appropriate fertilisers and heaps of mulch (to help keep moisture and nutrients in the soil). Organic mulches break down and reinvigorate the soil, so mulching should be done regularly. 

 

Tip: If you have a garden irrigation system, test it before covering the garden bed with mulch so you can detect any leaks or blockages.

A person at a workbench wearing gardening gloves with garden tools nearby, handplanting a hyacinth into a planter pot.

Potted plants

Have your potted plants survived winter (maybe against the odds)? Spring is a great time to show them some TLC. Trim off any dead or dying material, top up pots with potting mix or re-pot overgrown plants into larger containers. Give them a light spray with an pesticide, too, to keep the nasties away. Indoor plants can benefit from a dousing of water and, as with all plants, a good fertiliser. Check the label to ensure you buy the right type for your plant varieties.

A closeup of garden secateurs being used to prune red geraniums that have recently bloomed.

Prune and shape

A great place to start pruning any plant is to remove dead, dying, diseased or damaged stems that not only look bad, but also can attract pests. Start by removing the oldest shoots first to allow the plants to direct their energies into growing the younger stems and blooms. Then get rid of any suckers (shoots near or at ground level). Prune flowering shrubs immediately after they have bloomed. 

But, before you begin shaping, pruning, lopping and sawing, it’s a great idea to ensure the equipment you use is sharp. Just like with your skin, clean cuts heal quicker and therefore protect shrubs from injury and disease. Sterilise or disinfect your cutting tools between plants to prevent any transfer of potential diseases.

 

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