With forecasts predicting the worst winter probably since winters began, and dire warnings about the cold weather, our gardens might be in dire need of a little advance care. Follow these steps and you should be able to keep your garden in tip top condition ready for the first blooms of spring 2014…
Most of the tasks that need to be carried out involve getting rid of dead plants and leaves, and making sure that any plants not killed outright by the first cold snap are free from pests and disease. Protect your soil with a new layer of mulch – much of what was laid over the summer will now have decomposed, and a thick layer of mulch will help to keep the soil temperature relatively even.
Collect up any fallen leaves and use them to cover as much of the garden as possible. You could also think about buying a snow cover for trees if it looks like we might be in for a really cold snap. This is also excellent for insulating against the cold and keeping temperatures even.
After the first frost, you can also start cutting back the dry stems of perennials to soil level, although you might like to leave any stems with attractive or unusual looking seed heads as they are to add a bit of interest to the garden.
Trim your evergreen shrubs and trees back, making sure that you take off any diseased or damaged foliage, and that you rake up any old leaves or mulch to get rid of insect eggs, pests and rotting greenery. If you have rose bushes, they need careful attention in the winter – at least you know it will be worth it come springtime. Hybrid tea roses are most likely to need tending. Try not to prune them at all for a couple of months before the first winter frost is likely, because this can stimulate growth that you don’t really need, and if you’ve been feeding them, stop that around the same time, as the rose bushes enter a dormant period around this time.
As with the rest of the garden, get rid of any old mulch, and spread some new wood chips or shredded bark around the base and as far out as the branch tips. Once the ground freezes, you can add a bit more mulch. Add enough to insulate the soil, in a small mound. Add more as the winter gets colder to help maintain the temperature; in fact you could even cover the whole bush with mulch!
Keeping soil covered plants as tidy as possible and watering to a minimum is all you need to do once the vital garden winter preparations have been carried out. Then you simply have to sit back and wait for spring.
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