As the colours of summer fade and the leaves start to fall you’ll know it’s time to start clearing the garden for the winter months. Collecting fallen leaves and removing dead plants from borders means you can put any debris on the compost heap ready for spreading on the garden next year.
- Planting for the winter
Planting for the winter can be started in late spring so that you get good crops of winter vegetables and flowers the following year. If you go to the Ashridge Trees website you will find a wide variety of seeds, bulbs and plants that you can lay out ready for the winter and spring. You’ll be surprised what you can plant towards the end of the summer and still benefit from beautiful blooms before the winter sets in. It’s always nice to have a last burst of colour.
- Cleaning your shed or greenhouse
An article by Alan Titchmarsh in the Express online explains how you should take care of your garden equipment over the winter months. Make sure that you clean all of your garden tools and machinery so that when the New Year begins you don’t have to start repairing them. Clearing out sheds and ensuring that gutters are free from moss and leaves are just two important jobs to be done.
- Feeding the soil
Late Autumn/ early winter is a good time of the year to feed the garden with the compost that you prepared last season. Old leaves and a layer of mulch spread over the flower beds will help to protect them from the frosts of winter. An article in the Telegraph explains some simple ways in which you can start adding nutrients to the soil. If your garden suffers from dry winds then a covering of wood chippings will help prevent the soil from drying out too much.
- Mowing the lawn
If it has been a dry summer then you probably haven’t had to mow the lawn on a regular basis. But to make sure that the grass starts the new season well it’s important that you look after it as much as possible. Cutting the grass as late as possible and spreading new seed onto any sparse patches will ensure that you have a good covering of growth in the spring. You can buy grass seeds with weed killers and nutrients added. These will repair any bald patches and kill off any unwanted weeds.
- Winter vegetables
Just because winter is fast approaching it doesn’t mean you have to stop producing fresh vegetables. There is a wide variety that can be grown during the coldest months of the year, including onions, garlic, spinach and many others. If the weather does turn exceptionally cold you can always cover the plants with a fleece blanket to protect them, but they should be fine. Another important task to do as the temperature drops is to bring in any potted plants that need protection. The cold can cause some ornamental pots to crack.
