Winter-proof your garden
The start of winter doesn’t mean you have to hang up your gardening hat for the season. Many people see winter as a time to close down the garden and cease all green-thumb activities. But before you hang up your gardening gloves and put away the packets of seeds, you might want to consider a few things first. Prepping your garden before and through winter will make a big difference when spring rolls around.
Instead of going into damage control and fixing winter’s havoc, your garden will be ready to enjoy when spring’s first blooms have sprung. We’ve put together a list of things to stay on top of. It will not only give you a good start in spring, but protect your garden through winter.
Getting the garden ready for winter checklist:
Guard young trees
Not only is it a good idea to protect young trees and shrubs from animals (think rabbits and mice), but during winter you have to take extra care of them to ensure the winter elements like rain, gusty winds, snow and ice don’t completely destroy them. Use plastic or wire mesh (known as hardware cloth) to guards around the slender trunks and shrubs. Make sure the guard is high enough, over the snow line.
Keep the water coming
Most people probably think that during winter, the garden doesn’t require water. But this is not always the case. As long as the ground is not frozen and can accept water, you should at least water your evergreens. While a lot of plants are dormant during these cooler few months and not using much water, evergreens keep their needles all winter and thus lose water through their needles. Keeping water supplied to the roots on a weekly basis as long as possible into the winter season will help reduce stress on evergreens.
Brush it off
If ice or snow settle or piles up on evergreens, try to gently brush it off and don’t shake the branches. If you’re in a snowy part of Australia, the snow may freeze on the branch and will not brush off easily, if this is the case it is best to let it melt naturally, to avoid damage to the tree or shrub. If tree limbs break due to the weight of ice or snow, remove the broken limbs as soon as the weather permits. The tree’s wound will heal better in spring if it has clean edges instead of ragged tears.
Get leafy with it
Come winter it is quite possible that your garden floor is covered in leaves. Rather than throwing them out with the garbage, consider shredding autumn leaves and using them as winter mulch on flower beds. You can also add shredded leaves to the compost pile.
Weekly clean-up
A stitch in time save nine! This is a good thought to live by in the garden, too. Don’t wait until all the leaves have fallen, as during the cooler months of the year the lawn still needs sunlight and leaves left on the lawn will weaken it.
Branch off
When it comes to broken branches – as there can be a lot of these in winter – removing the most susceptible parts of a plant prior to the onset of winter weather can help with future breakage. Ice, snow, hail, wind, and other winter-weather extremes often cause branches to break, altering the plant’s appearance and, possibly, its productivity. Branches that appear partially dead or especially weak would qualify for early removal.
Weed them out
Do a big weed before winter sets in and discard any weeds that have seeds on them into the bin instead of compost. You will also want to do a good weeding and edging of the flower beds.
Love your lawn
It’s a good idea do apply lawn fertiliser late autumn as this encourages winter hardiness and promotes quick greening in spring.
Perennial garden clean-up
Cut down dying perennial foliage now and this way you don't have to clean up in the spring. A good compromise when getting your garden ready for winter is to remove leaves and stalks that frost turns to mush and any that are diseased. When cutting plants down, prune perennials so they're 4 to 5 inches of the ground.
Spring into the warmer months
It might sound odd, but this is still a good time to plant spring-flowering bulbs before the ground freezes hard. That way when spring is sprung you will be organised and can just sit back and watch your garden grow.
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