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5 Tips To Look After Your Garden In Winter

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In the winter, I must admit it is very difficult to care and love your garden; this is down to the cold, wet weather which we experience. It is still possible to care for your garden in the cold months and make it look as amazing as it does the rest of the year. If you ignore your garden all through winter, then you are going to find yourself with a huge task as soon as spring comes round. Follow these 5 tips to make your garden look gorgeous all year round.

Tidy

The key to making your garden look beautiful all year around is by keeping it tidy. You shouldn’t just use your garden as a dumping ground for rubbish you no longer want in the winter. Clear up any unwanted debris and mess, and take them out of the garden. This will give you a good basis to work with. You should also clear up any dead leaves and weeds which you have growing in your garden. This is a task which you should continue to do all year round, as dead leaves and growing weeds is always an unwanted sight.

Lawn

You do not actually need to do much to your lawn in the winter to care for it, the best advice I can give to you is to just leave it. You can do lots of damage to your lawn if you decide mow it in winter and walk all over. You should avoid walking on the grass when it is cold or wet and you will force the grass to stop growing. A way to keep the grass looking fresh all year around is by sprinkling grass feeder and grass seeds onto the lawn. This will cover up any patches and keep the grass growing all through the year.

You should try and remove some of the dead leaves which you have on your lawn, this way it will look pretty all through winter.

Plants

You shouldn’t just assume that because it is winter you can’t have no plants, there are many plants which grow better in the winter compared to the summer. You should buy some winter plant life and plant these just before winter arrives. This will keep your garden looking alive and fresh through the whole of winter. You can also get some gorgeous garden ware such as lighting and gorgeous fencing which will make your garden look even better in the dark cold evenings.

Hayley loves making her garden into a magical wonderland each year. She uses http://www.nutscene.com/ to get some beautiful garden ware for the winter.






How to Enjoy Your Garden in the Winter

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With the winter approaching, the bitter cold and darkening nights may see you spending more time indoors, neglecting your garden until the spring comes around again. But it doesn’t have to be that way! There are plenty of ways to enjoy your garden in the winter, so chuck on your boots, don your woolly hat, and venture out into the cold to enjoy a few of these enchanting treats…

Stargazing


There’s no better time than the crisp, clear nights of winter to gaze up to the sky and take in its breath-taking beauty. The Milky Way will sparkle brightly, the moon will beam more than you’ve ever known, and if you gaze for long enough you’re sure to see a shooting star or two. Wrap your arms around a loved one or your hands around a mug of hot cocoa while you gaze, mesmerised by what the night sky has to offer.

Bonfires & Fireworks

There’s no cosy a feeling as standing around a roaring bonfire with your close friends and family, sharing jokes and reminiscing over good times. Make a night of it and get a little merry, procure a folding table to rest your drinks upon, toast a few marshmallows on the fire, and finish the night off with a spectacular fireworks display.

Festive Decorations

The long nights can make your garden seem an unappealing, hard place. The flowers wither, the trees lose their leaves and the animals go into hibernation – but that doesn’t mean your garden can’t be a place of joy. Breathe life back into it with some seasonal decorations, string up a row of fairy lights and be filled with merriment every time you glance outside.

Year-Round Decorations

It’s not just festive decorations that can liven up your garden during the cold, winter months. Incorporate ornaments and evergreens into the landscape of your garden so that when the autumn begins its slow march into winter, your garden will remain vibrant and appealing. Build rock walls and paths, and place boulders and sculptures throughout to add a charm that lasts throughout the year.

Snow!

Everybody hopes for snow come winter, and our wishes usually come true, even if only briefly. As soon as the first flakes start to fall, put on your wellies and your winter coat, and prepare for some jovial frolicking! Build snowmen and snow-dogs, and snow-whatever-elses-you-fancy. Start a snowball fight with the mischievous neighbours, and when you’re tired out from that, collapse to the ground and carve out some snow angels!

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to enjoy your garden in the winter – and these are only a smattering of possibilities! Use your imagination and you’re sure to come up with countless excuses to get out the house, instead of whiling away your days in front of the television, waiting for the sun to return.

Bill Weston writes on a number of subjects including gardening furniture such as folding tables. You can find a folding table at http://www.gopak.co.uk/

Preparing our garden for winter

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October is almost over and it keeps on getting cooler here in Toronto. Most of our trees still have their leaves, but I’m sure that won’t be for long!

We spent yet another weekend – Or rather at least one day this weekend doing some more yard work in order to prepare our garden for winter. This time we were busy putting away things like our solar lights, garden ornaments and trimming back some of the plants that had become overgrown. I also took some time inspecting my rose plants and I cut out any dead branches that I noticed.

When the trees finally start to drop their leaves we’ll gather up some of the leaves and put them on our garden beds as we normally do each year. A good layer of maple leaves on our plants seems to help protect them through the winter.

Most winters we don’t get a lot of snow. Oh we get snow, but it snows, then it melts and we have a week or two of deep cold but no snow cover .. so if the plants are bare and exposed to all that cold it can really hurt them – so at least the deep leaf cover helps. Then of course it will snow again and our garden will have a foot or two of snow on it for a week or two until it melts again and that will keep the plants and ground insulated for a short while .. but the temperature changes the garden goes through through the winter because of our lack of good snow cover yet fairly cold temperatures can be quite hard on the plants if they aren’t prepared in the fall.

Do you put mulch or leaves on your garden beds in late fall to protect your plants over the winter?

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