Quick & Easy Winter Garden Maintenance
Winter isn’t a great time for gardening as the dark evenings mean gardening after work is nearly impossible, the soil is cold and the majority of the plants are not flowering or have lost their leaves.
Winter is, however, a fantastic time to take stock of your garden, have a tidy up and plan for the warmer months ahead. Here, Madingley Mulch, supplier of compost, soil conditioners, cheap garden stones and high-quality fence panels to customers in Cambridge, Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex, provides a simple guide on winter garden maintenance.
Tidy Your Tools
When you’re not using them is the best time to fix your tools. Sharpen your secateurs, tighten loose spade handles, brush the dirt and mud off your tools and get rid of any rust. Not only do you become a far more efficient gardener when your tools are sharp and clean, but applying a cleaner cut when pruning a plant means it’s less likely to succumb to disease.
Plan The Year Ahead
Write a list of your gardening successes and failures and think about how it can be improved this time next year.
Order new seeds and spend some time planning and drawing out any adventurous or new landscaping projects with potential dates, colour schemes and costs. You can even create a mood-board by cutting out photos from magazines – alternatively, you can create a mood-board online with a website such as Pinterest.
Look After The Wildlife
A Freezing cold winter can be a tough time for local wildlife – and for those animals who haven’t migrated to warmer climes until spring, these months can be a struggle for animals of all sizes.
Birds love seeds, nuts and fat balls left out for them on dishes or in bird feeders and will keep returning to your garden again and again. If leaving water out for birds, remember to refresh the water regularly and ensure it hasn’t frozen over.
Try to keep a corner of your garden untidy. Hedgehog populations are steadily declining and with an undisturbed pile of logs, sticks and leaves, a hedgehog can make a great home for itself over the winter.
Winter Pruning
Fruit trees lie dormant, so it’s safe to prune them over the winter. Spend some time removing dead or damaged branches and look for where branches cross over and rub each other. Eliminate this problem by removing the weaker of the two.
It is best to prune on a dry, mild day and cut any branches at the node (the point at which a twig or branch is attached to another).
Madingley Mulch provides a huge range of high-quality garden supplies, including cheap garden stones, soil conditioners, compost, mulch and fence panels to our customers in Cambridge, Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex. Please get in touch today on 01954 212144 or shop@mulch.co.uk to discuss your gardening requirements.
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