Winter, to most people, means the end of the gardening season. It’s a time to shut the garden gate and let nature take its course. Besides, you’ve already reaped summer’s benefits and done quite a lot of work to keep your garden looking clean and healthy.
However, this should not be what you want to do as winter approaches. You should do your best to prepare your garden for spring and summer by maintaining it during winter. If you have been wondering what you should be doing to show love to your garden this winter, read on.
1. Continue Watering
This is essentially the simplest and cheapest way to protect your garden during winter. While most people think that watering plants during winter can result in freezing of water in the soil, this is far from the truth. It has been discovered that water does a lot in helping to generate heat in the soil. As such, regular watering of plants throughout the cold and dry season helps your plants to remain healthy.
2. Clear out the Garden
Your garden should be clear of dead foliage as well as dead stems. This should be done for many reasons, one being that untidy, old looking plants can be a source of pests, disease, and even funguses. If insects were feeding on you crops in the summer, they might have laid eggs on the plants’ stalks and leaves.
For this reason, you should remove all spent plants from the garden surface. You can bury such waste in garden trenches if they are disease-free. Doing so can add organic matter to the soil while also keeping away pests that could have hatched from the eggs left behind.
3. Take Some Plants Inside
There are some plants that won’t survive winter, no matter how hard you try. In such a situation, you can keep the outdoor container plants in your house to shield them from the freezing temperatures. However, you will have to place such plants where they can get the unique needs for warmth, light, and humidity.
As you transfer such plants, be sure to prioritise the ones that are healthy. By doing so, you will increase the chances of survival. Plants that are not healthy should not be brought into the house to prevent them from contaminating the healthy ones.
4. Build a Greenhouse if you can
One of the best ways to upgrade your garden and ensure that everything in it remains healthy all year round is to add a greenhouse to your property. You can decide to make things a little bit more interesting by building a smart greenhouse as this will make it easier to automate factors such as water, temperature, and others that enhance growing conditions.
5. Replenish Mulch
Your garden requires mulch in the winter just like it does during summer. Adding a thick layer of mulch in the winter has quite a number of benefits such as regulating soil moisture and temperature, as well as easing the transition into winter. Remember that as the mulch breaks down, it adds fresh organic material into the soil, allowing it to become richer in nutrients.
6. Leave Nature to Take its Course
You should not worry so much about the soil as it continues to snow. In fact, the snow can protect it through insulation and keeping the temperature more consistent. If, however, the snow is too much and it lands on the branches of your trees or other plants, be sure to clear it. You should knock it off from the lower branches as you go upwards so that it won’t damage the lower branches with its weight.
Conclusion
Keeping your garden healthy even during winter is possible with a few adjustments in the way you do your gardening. Remember that maintaining your garden during the cold season prepares it for the next season. If you feel like the work is too much for you, there’s always an option to hire a gardener.
So, if you are looking to hire the professionals to maintain and improve your garden, Kite Landscapes are on hand to help. Call us today on 01344 886 331 or visit our contact page.