Getting Your Garden Ready for Winter
This is a collaborative post.
Winter’s on its way, whether you relish it or dread it. One thing that can make the colder months a bit more pleasant is knowing your garden is properly put to bed and ready for action come spring.
Quick Tidy Ups.
Tackle a few of these tasks over the coming weeks and they’ll get done in no time and make a huge improvement to the view from the window.
- Attack the weeds – those pesky plants pop up out of nowhere, or so it seems. Pull them up while they’re young and prevent them from getting too firm a toe hold in paths or flower and veg beds.
- Scrape back any moss that’s growing in shady areas, especially on walkways where it can become very slippery when it’s damp.
- Clear up fallen leaves through the autumn. Leaving them lying on the ground over winter can clog up drains and deprive lawns of light, leaving bare patches come spring.
If you’ve got a compost bin, put leafy weeds (and fallen leaves) in there but avoid trying to compost weed seeds or roots as they’ll just spread weeds through your compost. Use your council compost bin to get rid of those.
Remember if you are cutting back plants or bushes to make sure you’ve invested in safety glasses beforehand, to keep yourself safe.
Save Plant Seeds.
Lots of the seeds we buy each year to grow, such as tomato, pea or bean seeds can actually be gathered from the plants that have gone to seed before you got round to harvesting them.
Leave beans and peas on the pods till they’re brown and papery, then harvest the seeds and save them in paper envelopes. Make sure they’re labelled or you’ll forget which is which. Save them in the fridge till you’re ready to plant them.
You can save flower seeds in paper envelopes too. Harvesting flower and vegetable seeds can be a fun activity that is both calming and relaxing to partake in. Plus it can help you work towards being more food self-sufficient when you re-plant the seeds from the same vegetables year after year.
If you have a polytunnel or greenhouse, why not plant some winter lettuce for a few fresh leaves through winter. Alternatively, hardy veg varieties such as onions, broad beans and carrots can all be started through the winter months ready for an early crop in spring.
Tool and Furniture Care.
Make sure you have a safe space to put all your summer garden items. This could be your own garden shed or garage, or you may need to look into self-storage. Especially, for items like larger garden tools as they take up so much space, alongside other garden stuff, such as paddling pools or climbing frames that don’t see much action when the weather is poor.
Remember to always clean grass clippings and dirt off wheels and blades and give moving parts a quick wipe with an oily rag to lubricate them before you then stow any garden tools safely in storage.
It’s surprising how much a tidy garden clears the mind, quite aside from the benefits of fresh air and exercise. Even just pulling out a few weeds refreshes the whole outlook.
How do you get your garden ready for winter?
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