It’s all about taking a few sensible steps to protect
the garden from the unpredictable weather we may have to come over the winter.
- Protect vulnerable plants from the cold. Pull your agapanthus into the side of the house so they have some shelter from the eves. A little shelter will not hurt.
- Get out a bucket of soapy water and a sponge and give your silver birch bark and any other beautify barks a spruce up.
- All the ornamental exotic plants like cannas want wrapping up. The tenderest need to come in for the winter.
- Reduce your watering. Most plants prefer dry moist but not water logged and not bone dry. This applies to everything almost in green houses and containers. Watch out for dry windy weather and ineffective light rain they are deceptive.
- Pots must drain particularly terracotta or they will crack and waterlogged plants may die. Stand them on blocks, stone or buy some pot feet.
- Tuck you newly planted shrubs and perennials in with a good dollop of muck or compost. A mulch makes a good root blanket with added benefits of feed later nicely wormed worked into the soil.
- Pruning shrubs trees fruit is essential but only prune if it is mild don’t prune just before a heavy frost. Be particularly careful with grape vines as the sap will bleed if it is frosted quickly after pruning.
- Bare rooted hedging is available to plant.
- Dig over any cloddy heavy soil you want to plant in the spring and chuck some organic matter in the form of muck or composted products on top then leave it to get crumpled by the frost and worm worked over the winter.
- Taps and pipes that might get frosted may benefit from some straw or a bit of hessian wrapping around them for insulation.
- Winter garden can be extremely colourful. A lack of colour usually reflects that we buy most of our plants when in flower at warmer times of the year. More on winter gardens on my blog.
- Containers and baskets can be a fabulous boost of colour over the winter and are easy to achieve. Its also lovely to use berries and evergreen and create a Seasonal theme to your containers.
