Winter Gardening Tips & Ideas
Many of us think that during winter we are just supposed to clean our gardens and then hunker down till spring. But winter need not be just about sitting in front of the fireplace and reading gardening magazines about how to plan your garden for the upcoming spring season. It can also be an opportunity to freshen up your garden with new landscaping ideas and plants.
Gardening in winter is more difficult; however a lovely garden full of hardy winter plants and flowers can look amazing with a little effort. Some plants remain inactive during the cold winter season, but there are some plants that survive cold harsh weather on short bursts of sunshine.
A winter garden can be easily planned and created where you can grow vegetables, herbs, or fruits along with winter plants to create a lovely landscape. Hardy cyclamen, ivy, skimmia and evergreen grasses such as carex will add colour to any garden. Place them in prominent places beside entrances and well used paths to enjoy their winter display. Plant some shrubs for winter interest. Sarcococca confusa adds colour and fragrance to your garden at this time of year.
Or why not give a try to winter vegetables and herbs? Most winter vegetable plants are fully hardy and will cope well with cold winter weather, but if hard frosts threaten then you can always throw some fleece across them to provide some extra protection. Here are the top 10 vegetables that you can grow in winter. If that doesn’t excite you, then you can also go for re-structuring your garden as well.
Winter is the ideal time of the year to do clean up tasks in your garden because cool weather helps you to perform these difficult jobs easily. Start from raking leaves from the yard or removing broken branches from the trees. Dead, old and non-productive plants needs to be dug out for composting which helps reduce unwanted pests and plant diseases. If you don’t have it yet, you can setup a composting system by using fallen leaves, cut grass, waste vegetables and paper waste to produce rich organic compost which will add nutrients to the garden soil.
Don’t forget to order seeds of those plants that should be sown mid to late winter. Take winter hanging baskets undercover before they get exposed to severe winter frosts. Either put them under the porch or in the greenhouse if you have one.
When you have finished cleaning your garden, it is now time for planning for the next spring season and for that you have to maintain your gardening tools and repair them if needed. Small tools for digging need to be sharpened and checked if they need repairing.
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