The Ultimate Spring Checklist

I’ve never quite understood why T.S. Eliot said, “April is the cruelest month.” My sensibilities align much more with Emily Dickinson when she said, “Dear March – Come in!” Spring is the time of ostentatious flowers and very soft grass and the world beginning to wake up again. I’ve put together a spring checklist of things to celebrate the season and get ready for summer.

“Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence wire;”

— Sara Teasdale

Spring Checklist

Make a Bouquet

Yes, spring is allergy season, but the flip side? Spring is full of beautiful flowers! From fragrant flowers like hyacinth and lily to colorful, ostentatious blooms like iris and tulips, spring is the best (and least expensive) time of year to gather and arrange beautiful florals.

You can build a bouquet 3 ways:

Get your blooms from a grocery store and watch a DIY bouquet tutorial.
Visit a DIY bouquet shop (my favorites in Denver are DIY Denver Flowers and Bloom Bar)
Visit a floral shop and buy one (The Ruffly Rose on South Pearl in Denver is my #1).

A tip: it’s best to avoid cutting flowers in your neighborhood unless you have express permission from the property owner!

Hold a Garden Party

Spring marks the official return to al fresco dining. Once it’s finally warm and verdant enough to relax outside, throwing a garden party must be done.

Keep the theme and decor fairly simple with spring produce, white table cloths, and bouquets of wild flowers. Or, go full-throttle with one of these themes:

Afternoon Tea
Cottagecore Garden Party
Rainbow Foods
French Viennoiserie

You can also check out my guide to the ultimate garden party menu.

Browse the Farmers Market

Most farmers markets (particularly here in Colorado) close down for the winter months. In the winter, farms don’t produce goods, and people don’t want to be outdoors to shop for carrots. When the sun comes back out, so do those utilitarian white tents.

Here are my favorite farmers markets near Denver:

Plant Something

Once the ground thaws and the worst of the frost is over, you can begin planning your seasonal chlorophyll-filled adventures. There is a huge range of ways to be involved in gardening regardless of your home or income level, so don’t leave this one off your spring checklist. Ranked from easiest to most advanced, here are ways to flex your green thumb:

Purchase a houseplant
Repot your houseplants
Start herbs or tomatoes on your patio
Clear your yard of weeds and debris
Plant a border of new annuals
Plant a wildflower garden
Build raised beds
Re-landscape your yard

Read in the Park

Reading outdoors is one of life’s greatest simple pleasure. Though many people gravitate towards reading by the pool or the beach, a park is also a wonderful place to read! Make sure you bring these things for your most successful outdoor reading experience:

Sunscreen
Insect repellent
A blanket
Snacks
A water bottle
An umbrella for shade (if there are no trees)
A book!

Play in the Rain

April showers, May flowers, you get the gist. Soft spring rains are typically a staple of spring. I won’t go full Drew Barrymore with this recommendation. But I do have a little story about why I think playing in the rain is important.

I attended high school near Amarillo, Texas – one of the driest and windiest places in the country. My senior year of high school, we didn’t get a single drop of precipitation for over six months. It was brutal. It was worse than the Dust Bowl. One day in June, a patron rushed into the restaurant where I had a summer job as a hostess.

“It’s raining!” they yelled. “It’s raining!”

Word spread around the restaurant. Host to server, server to cooks, through all the patrons. As word spread, people began to get up from their tables, one by one. Everyone rushed outside in a mass of people. For fifteen minutes or so, everyone in that restaurant played in the rain.

What are your favorite spring activities? What would you put on your spring checklist? Tell me in the comments!