If you love your garden, the hardest time of the year is winter. Your garden looks bare, there are no buzzing bees, and everything is grey and brown. However, there are still jobs to be done to help your dormant plants get ready for the coming spring. Even for novice gardeners, it is important to keep active in the green space in the colder months – so read on to learn what jobs need doing in your garden before spring.
Weed Control
Weeds never stop growing, even in winter. So, with all of your plants and flowers sleeping, now is the time to dig in and get rid of them! Indeed, one of the top tips to prepare your garden for winter and for the coming year is to dig out as many weed roots as you can. That way, they cannot dominate a flower patch when the flowers are dormant.
Move Dormant Plants
If you have pots or even newly planted vegetation, you may have noticed that last summer, some of them didn’t do so well where they were. This could have led to minimal flower growth or even issues with fruit. Use wintertime to move these plants to a more suitable location in your garden. Just be sure to research exactly where that is first!
Add Compost
It is safe to say that come winter, even the most flower-rich gardens will look bare and boring. But this does not mean that there is nothing that can be done to help those sleeping flowers when they come back next year.
Aim to add compost to flowerbeds. Whether it is from your own heap or purchased, adding compost and manure to flowerbeds can help the bulbs and roots access nutrients they are missing due to the colder weather and dormant soil bacteria. So, come spring, your plants will be more likely to spring up and will be healthier than ever!
Prune
Whether it’s trees, roses, or buddleias, winter is the time to prune them. When trees are dormant, they are without leaves, and issues can be easier to spot for even the most novice tree keepers. Also, pruning back branches can help to stimulate new growth come spring, which is especially important if your tree is one that is bearing fruit.
As for roses and buddleias, this time of year is ideal for cutting these back too. Much like trees, they also benefit from hard pruning, as it helps to stimulate new growth in the spring and summer.
Compost Heaps
Many people overlook the humble compost heap, especially in winter. But, as those cold days set in, these spots are ideal for many garden visitors to lay their eggs, such as moths and butterflies, as well as being an area for mice and other cute furries to hunker down.
So, aim to build up your compost heap with some additional soil, biodegradable kitchen waste, and of course, the bits of plants that have been pruned off. Also, if you can, gently turn parts of the compost heap to help the underlayers to break down.
