Temperatures have dropped and days have shortened, but when the weather stays dry during the winter months, it provides a good opportunity to carry out gardening work. Winter is the time to look ahead to spring. Winter gardening can be important to pave the way for new greenery and healthy growth. Maintaining the garden during the winter can help you start the growing season quickly and give you time in the spring to see the flowers bloom. Here are six tips for winter gardening so that you have a beautiful garden in the spring.
Time for bulbs
Autumn and winter are the time to start planting bulbs. Bulbs such as allium, hyacinth, grapes and tulips can be planted until December. Make sure that you do not do this during a very wet period or during frost, the spring bulbs can then rot or freeze. If you can't get your bulbs in the ground before December, you can still plant them in pots in January. Put the pots outside and bury them under a thick blanket of leaves and then, as soon as the weather permits, you can plant them in the ground.
Clean your garden tools
Since this isn't a time when you'll be using gardening tools often, winter is a great time to spruce up the garden shed and reorganize your gardening tools. After cleaning them, you can store them in a box or in an old jar filled with a mixture of clean sand and vegetable oil.
Pruning Winter is actually one of the best times of the year to prune the deciduous plants in your garden. This is because when plants are dormant, they are less likely to transmit disease or attract insects. The best time is to wait for a mild, sunny day.
Feed the birds
It's not just you who can't enjoy the garden as much as usual, the birds suffer too. Provide food for the birds as natural food supplies are hard to find in winter. Water is just as important as natural springs freeze. And put up birdhouses to encourage nesting when spring comes.
Protect and prepare perennials for winter
Even if a plant is considered 'hardy', frost protection can make all the difference. There are several ways to do this:
Cover the plants with compost, dry leaves, straw, wood chips, cardboard, or grass clippings in the winter months. When spring comes you can remove it again. Do not remove before the last frost is expected. Tender bulbs such as begonia, dahlia, freesia and gladiolus should be carefully removed from the garden and stored in a dry, cool area for the winter to be replanted next season. Daffodils, crocus, tulip and hyacinth are good examples of hardy bulbs that tolerate a hard frost.
Prepare your garden for spring
Winter is the perfect time to prepare for spring. Turn the soil little by little, so you can easily turn it into sowing soil next year. Make an inventory of all the materials you will use during the growing season and buy everything in advance. You are then ready as soon as the sun starts to shine and the thermometer starts to rise.
