There is a lot you can do in the garden during the winter months including protecting the grass, planting new seeds, and growing vegetables in the greenhouse. If you have some free time this winter, why not get out into the garden and prepare the ground or plant some bulbs for the spring months?
Clear the Snow
Snow looks lovely from inside the house, but unless you clear it from the garden, it can ruin your lawn come springtime. The snow and ice compact the grass blades and leaves; it also makes the soil hard and cracked, but clearing the snow is one of the best ways to protect the garden.
As well as clearing the snow and ice from the lawn, you need to clear it from the path as well. When you walk on a frozen lawn, you damage, or break, the grass blades and need to plant some new grass. After clearing the pathways, put down some salt or grit to encourage usage.
Install a Greenhouse
How would you like to grow your own fruits and vegetables this year? With food prices rising and people trying to live more sustainable lifestyles, it’s time to install a greenhouse and learn some of the tricks of the trade. Find quality greenhouses for sale and grab yourself a bargain.
A greenhouse is a simple but effective tool for growing fruit and vegetables in your home garden. A greenhouse uses the sun’s free energy to heat the house and grow food items that would be impossible to grow in the natural climate. Greenhouses can also work in the winter.
Polish the Tools
Winter is not always the best time for gardening; there might be snow and ice in the garden, and you might also have wind, rain, and mud. Even though you can’t work in the garden, you can still work in the garden shed. Winter is the perfect time to polish and sharpen your garden tools.
Use the time you would normally spend working in the garden to arrange your tools and make sure they are sharp and well-maintained. Once you have taken care of them, you can store them in a mixture of sand and vegetable oil to maintain their quality until the spring and summer.
Plant Bulbs
Winter might not be the easiest time to plant bulbs, but it is the best time if you want a garden filled with colourful flowers and root vegetables in the spring and summer months. Start by choosing the type of flowers you want and investing in a selection of quality bulbs from a store. If you can dig a hole in the garden, this is the best way to plant bulbs in the winter; the trouble is that the winter earth might be hard and compacted; in this case, you can place the bulbs on the ground and cover them with leaves allowing them to acclimatise to the weather before planting.
Prune Plants
If you want your deciduous plants to grow healthy and strong, you need to prune them quite regularly. Pruning the plants helps to direct nutrients to key areas of the plant, supporting growth. One of the best times to prune plants is in the winter when there are fewer leaves.
With no leaves or buds on the branches, you can see what you’re doing more easily, making pruning more accurate and effective. Pruning plants require a pruning tool and some knowledge of the plant and the pruning process. It’s best to wait for a sunny day to prune your plants.
Keep a Journal
Keeping a healthy and prosperous garden is all about planning – like any other aspect of life – so make sure you have a journal to write in and keep track of the plants, shrubs, and bulbs you plant throughout the winter season. Tracking your plants improves their quality and the yield.
In your journal, you can track the blub types; you can also track the location, the bloom time, the past performance, the source, and any pest problems you may encounter. The more you know about your plants, the better you can make adaptions and changes to encourage better results.
Check the Seeds
Before you plant your winter seeds, you need to check them to make sure they are still active. The last thing you need is to plant some winter seeds and get zero results. The good news is that it’s quite easy to check your seeds for quality; all you need is a damp paper towel for them.
Take the old seeds and wrap them in a damp paper towel. Keep the paper towel moist and damp for about a week to allow germination to take place; this should take about a week. If most of the seeds sprout, it should be fine; less than half, and you need to replace the seeds.
Consider the Birds
Remember, a garden is a little ecosystem, and everything in it matters and plays a part. If you want to maintain a healthy garden, you need to cultivate areas for the birds and insects to thrive. Birds help the garden thrive by eating the berries and spreading them in the garden to seed.
If you want to encourage more birds into your garden, you can install a bird bath, bird feeder, or both. If you install a bird bath, you might need to protect it from any cats in the area. Birdhouses in the trees are also nice ideas and help to attract new life to your garden in the springtime.
Planters and Flower Beds
If you have planters and flower beds, the winter is a good time to clean these out and prepare them for the spring. Take off the covers and remove any frost, snow, or ice; you can also take away any of the mulch you find there. Once you have cleared the planters, recover them and check them every so often for signs of winter weather damage, you will be thankful in Spring.
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