Top 10 tips to prepare your garden for winter
Top 10 tips to prepare your garden for winter
It’s that time of year again when the nights are drawing in, the leaves are beginning to fall and the temperature is starting to drop. The arrival of autumn means it’s time to start preparing our gardens for the fast-approaching winter and the weather that comes along with it. Keep reading for our Top 10 tips to prepare your garden for winter.
Start planning for the new year
After all the other autumn garden jobs have been done, why not start planning out your garden for the following year? Take a look around your garden and take stock. Think about what plants you would like more of or where there are gaps you would like to fill. Then, let your creativity run wild!
Prune trees and shrubs
Some trees and shrubs will require some light pruning during autumn. This will keep them healthy and help tidy up their shape and size to keep them manageable.
Plant evergreens
Another way to brighten up your winter garden is by planting evergreens. This way, even when the flowers have faded, you will still be left with gorgeous foliage, giving you year-round interest. Some of our favourites include Sarcococca, winter flowering Camellia sasanqua and Viburnum Rock'N'Rolla.
Plant up autumn & winter containers and baskets
We often think of winter as being a rather barren time in the garden, but it need not be with the help of winter flowering plants. These plants will add some much needed colour when most other plants have faded away. We recommend plants such as Pansies and Violas as they flower for a number of months through from autumn to spring, bringing bright pops of colour to your pots, baskets and window boxes.
Protect the wildlife
Winter is a tough time for our wildlife, so we would like to encourage gardeners to help them out by putting extra food out for them during this time or even a little hideout to shelter from the hardest frosts. As a bonus to helping the animals, you will also get to watch them scurry and fly about your garden, and potentially help you out with some common gardens pests like caterpillars and aphids down the line!
Protect garden furniture
As the cold weather starts to set in, now is the time to start protecting and storing garden furniture so it doesn’t become damaged. Fabric cushions should be stored indoors and furniture that is kept outside should kept under a waterproof cover.
Clear Leaves or leave them!
Now that the plants are dying back, it’s the perfect time to give your garden a tidy up. Clean up your borders and clear up the fallen leaves. Clearing up leaves from paths will stop you from slipping on them and the leaves can be gathered and used to make leaf mould, which can then be used for mulch. Alternatively, don't forget, leaf matter makes the perfect hideout for visiting insects and hedgehogs, 70% of our hedgehog population has declined in recent years, if needs must and you like the tidy look of a garden pop the leaves under some shrubs or a cut back perennial borders so the hedgehogs have somewhere to hide!
Mulching
As well as lifting tender plants that are not appropriate to leave in the garden, for other plants that do not require lifting, a mulch should be applied. This will help to protect the plants roots over the cold winter. Mulch can be made from a number of different things including leaf mould, garden compost, wood chippings, straw and any more.
Plant spring flowering bulbs
Now is the perfect time for planting your spring-flowering bulbs ready for the new year. As a general rule, we recommend planting your bulbs at a depth of about 2-3 times the height of the bulb and with space in between them of about 2 bulb widths. The beauty of bulbs is that they are so easy to grow and really be planted however and wherever you like just as long as they have well-drained soil in sun or partial shade.
Lifting tender perennials
If you have tender plants in your garden, then now is the perfect time to lift them in order to store them over the winter period. Plants such as Begonias, Dahlias, Gladiolus and Cannas all will require lifting and storing. This can be done by simply cutting back the old flowering stems then lifting the plants from the soil using a fork and removing excess soil. Store them in trays filled with dry soil or sand, leaving the top of the plant exposed and keep in a cool but frost-free place.
