10 Top Tips How to Prepare Your Garden for Winter

 

With red, orange and yellow foliage on some trees and shrubs, and certain plants still in bloom, many people’s gardens currently make stunning sights. However, the clocks going back has just given us a little reminder that we’re now deep into autumn, so your outdoor area will soon encounter its most challenging time.

Bearing this in mind, we’d like to offer you our 10 top tips on how to prepare your garden for the winter. These little snippets of advice are designed to help protect both the natural and manmade elements of your garden, ensuring that every aspect of it remains as welcoming as possible for you, come next spring.

So, if you’re asking yourself how to prepare a garden for winter, please read on…

Winter Garden Prep Tip 1: Check Garden Structures

Harsh winter weather always exposes weaknesses in garden structures. And it’s far more time and cost effective to take preventative action now than have to pick up the pieces once the damage is done.

The first thing to check is your fencing because if it is substandard, there’s a danger it won’t survive extreme winds or heavy falls of snow. Should any of the panels be rotting or missing slats, they’ll need to be repaired or replaced. The same goes for fence posts, which are vital to the structural integrity of your fence run. As well as checking the posts are free from rot, you should also ensure they’re set firmly in the ground.

Once you know your fencing is sound, examine your garden buildings, such as the shed, greenhouse, and anything else within the confines of your property. Check there are no tears in the shed’s roof felt and that it is firmly secured to the building’s structure. Conduct a slow, walkaround inspection of both the building’s interior and exterior too, paying particular attention to the floor, roof, door, and joinery around the windows. If you encounter any rot, or other obvious weaknesses, repair or replace the part in question. It’s all about getting your garden ready for winter.

Winter Garden Prep Tip 2: Use Garden Storage

Chances are that some of the garden products you used over the summer are still exactly where you left them. Now is the time to rectify this by putting them into your outdoor storage units, so they’re garden ready for winter.

When it comes to smaller outdoor items, most people store them in their shed. However, it’s worth noting that specialist patio storage is readily available both online and in garden centres. This can prove particularly useful for delicate items, like garden cushions.

If you own an outdoor furniture set that’s too big to store in the shed, be sure to treat it to protective covers. After all, garden furniture is a significant investment, and it will have served you well over the summer months. Now is the time to repay the favour. And considering the cost of these sets, not to do so would be false economy.

Winter Garden Prep Tip 3: Clear Leaves and Weeds

Clearing fallen leaves from your patio or driveway is an essential task to prepare a garden for winter. Not only do these leaves look unsightly, once wet they become a genuine slip hazard. Wet leaves even increase a car’s stopping distance, so it’s good practice to clear them from the area immediately surrounding your property too.

To help you do this, we sell a superb range of blowers and vacuum shredders. The former will help you effortlessly move fallen leaves into manageable piles for easy disposal, while the latter have the added benefits of collecting and reducing them.

Now is also a great time to remove weeds, so they don’t become an even bigger nuisance next spring. Weedkiller is obviously the easiest way to do this. If you’d rather keep your garden free of chemicals and remove them by hand, be sure to dig them out by the roots so they don’t return.

Both leaves and weeds are ideal ingredients if you make your own compost or mulch, unless they’re diseased in which case you should dispose of them in your garden waste bin or at the local recycling centre.

Winter Garden Prep Tip 4: Lawncare

Early November is the best time to give your lawn its final cut of the year. Mow it nice and short to keep the grass healthy over the winter months. This will encourage much better growth come spring. And be sure to carry out this task when the grass is dry to avoid damaging it, creating bare patches and spreading disease.

As the soil is usually moist at this time of year, now is also the perfect time to aerate your lawn. This involves perforating the soil to allow air, water and nutrients easier access to the grass’s roots.

Autumn is the best season to scarify a lawn too, which is the process of removing thatch. This is an interwoven layer of organic matter, which deprives the grass of oxygen, water and nutrients. The machine used to do it is called a scarifier. It is fitted with sharp steel blades that aggressively aerate the soil and remove the thatch.

You won’t be surprised to hear that we stock an unbeatable range of lawnmowers, aerators and scarifiers for sale, so we’re sure to have exactly what you need, as you prepare your garden for winter.

Winter Garden Prep Tip 5: Prune Dormant Plants

Although the best time to prune a plant depends on the species, generally speaking, when it is deciduous, this is in winter. The reason for this is that as the plant is dormant, it will find pruning less stressful, which, in turn, aids its recovery. However, you should avoid pruning if frost is forecast, as particularly cold temperatures may damage the cut ends of the stems.

Also, please note that you should not prune evergreen trees or shrubs at this time of year. As they do not lose their leaves, their food reserves have not been transferred to the roots, so pruning during the winter will deprive them of precious resources, damaging the plant’s health.

Should you need a new pair of secateurs or cordless pruners to help you with this task, you’ll find them in our Hand Tools category here. Our specialist pole pruners have their own dedicated space on the website here.

Winter Garden Prep Tip 6: Moving Dormant Trees and Plants

The same principles apply when moving a deciduous tree or plant to a bigger pot, but this is a task best planned well in advance, when you’re getting a garden ready for winter.

Firstly, the day before moving the tree or plant, water the soil around it to ensure the roots are moist. This will reduce the plant’s stress. Secondly, be sure you have the tools/ help you need to carefully prize it out of its pot to avoid damaging the roots.

If the plant is going into a new container, choose a pot that is no more than a third larger than the old one. Anything bigger can be classified as overpotting and is likely to damage the plant.

Should you be moving the tree or plant into the ground, ensure the hole has been dug well in advance, so the plant can be transferred straight into its new home.

Naturally, if the ground is frozen or waterlogged, postpone this task until conditions have improved.

Winter Garden Prep Tip 7: Getting Plants Ready for Winter

‘Overwintering’ tender plants means giving them the extra protection they need to see them through the colder, harsher winter months, so that they will continue to survive and prosper, into the following year.

The extent of the protection required is determined by the nature of the plant.

In the case of tropical perennials that have been moved outdoors over the summer months, they’ll certainly need to come back indoors. Popular plants that some people presume are annuals, such as begonias and geraniums, can also be moved inside to a sunny spot on your windowsill, which will help them survive for another year.

Other plants benefit from the protection offered by a greenhouse. The decision on whether or not to heat the greenhouse will depend on the tenderness of the plant, and so the level of heat required.

If the plant is hardy enough to remain outdoors, overwintering might simply involve moving it to a sunnier, less hostile area of the garden. And in the case of large potted plants or trees that require just a little bit of protection from the cold, you could wrap the container in horticultural fleece.

Bubble wrap is another good way of getting raised beds ready for winter, as it is also an effective insulating material.

Winter Garden Prep Tip 8: Getting Flower Beds Ready for Winter

Mulch is organic material, which you can easily make yourself from garden debris, such as grass cuttings, hedge clippings and bark chips. Putting it on the surface of your borders provides a number of key benefits. These include adding nutrients to the soil, helping it retain moisture, suppressing weeds, and protection against frost. When it contains wood chips, mulch can also look very attractive.

In autumn, you should spread a ring of mulch around newly planted trees and shrubs. This will help protect the roots and crown from frost. Then, as winter comes to a close, mulch the entire border so that the soil retains plenty of moisture for the warmer, drier weather ahead.

Winter Garden Prep Tip 9: Look After Wildlife

Just as it is for plants, winter can be a challenging time for wildlife. That said, there are a number of things you can do to help it survive the coming months.

Firstly, leave seed out for the birds because their natural sources of food are a lot scarcer at this time of year. And when you do this, be smart about where you put it. Choose a high place, well away from the type of cover that could be used by the local cat population to spring an ambush.

Secondly, if you have a garden pond, you should clear any leaves from the surface. If you don’t do this, they can cause bacterial infections in the fish.

Your garden prep in winter should also include taking measures to prevent your pond from freezing over, either by using a pond heater or de-icer. Should the water freeze, this will trap carbon dioxide and prevent oxygen reaching the pond. Furthermore, if any plants or fish were to die in the pond, they will decay under the surface, damaging the balance between nutrients and toxins.

Finally, over the school holidays, or on a weekend, why not enlist your children’s help to make a bug hotel? Designed to replicate insects’ natural habitat, these structures are fun to construct and provide your garden’s invaluable insect population with suitable shelter throughout the year.

Winter Garden Prep Tip 10: Keep Growing Plants

Just because it’s winter doesn’t mean that you can’t grow anything in your borders or containers.

Bulbs, such as alliums, tulips and hyacinths, can all be planted during late autumn and early winter, so you’ll soon have new blooms to enjoy. These garden ready winter plants mean there’s no need for you to go into hibernation until spring.

There are plenty of seeds you can sow indoors or in the greenhouse, at this time of year, too. Snapdragons and begonias are just two examples. This also applies to a wide range of herbs, for example basil, chives and mint.

Our Final Tip: Start Planning for Next Year

As well as getting your garden ready for winter, now is also a great time to start planning ahead for next year. Let your creative juices flow as you ponder the different plants you could grow, as well as the projects you should undertake to improve your overall enjoyment of your garden.

You’ll find all the garden machinery you could possibly need to support your plans here, at Ron Smith. And should you need advice about any of our products, please don’t hesitate to contact one of our Hereford or Worcester-based Garden Machinery Experts, who will be delighted to assist you in any way they can.