The cold and wet weather can pose a challenge for the plants in your garden or grounds over winter. At the same time, the winter period is the crucial time to prepare your grounds for the spring, ensuring healthy growth all year round. As a result, there are a number of important tasks for your garden in winter, and a professional team can be the perfect choice to take care of your grounds or gardens over this period. But what can you expect? And why are these tasks so important?
What are the important tasks for your garden in winter?
There are a number of different steps to take to ensure that your garden is taken care of in the winter, ensuring healthy growth in the spring. These tasks include:
- Preparing and protecting the plants
- Pruning and maintenance
- Soil care and improvement
Preparing and protecting the plants in winter
Winter weather can be harsh, with frost, snow, and strong winds posing risks to plants. As a result, one of the first steps a professional team like us here at Green Scenery will take, is to put in place preventative measures to protect your garden. These could include:
- Insulating tender plants- We will cover frost sensitive plants, like fuchsias or young roses, with horticultural fleece or cloches. We will also move potted plants to sheltered locations or indoors if possible.
- Mulch the soil- We will apply a thick layer of organic mulch, such as bark chips, compost, or straw, around the base of plants to insulate roots and retain moisture.
- Check for frost heave- Frost can push shallow-rooted plants out of the soil. As such, we will firm them back gently if we notice that they have been dislodged.
Pruning and maintenance for your garden in winter
Winter is an ideal time to prune certain plants and trees, as their dormant state will reduce the stress from cutting. As part of this, we will:
- Prune deciduous trees and shrubs- We will remove dead, diseased, or crossing branches from trees like apple and pear. This improves their structure and promotes healthy growth.
- Cut back perennials- We will trim back dead foliage on herbaceous perennials to tidy up beds and prevent pests from overwintering.
- Trim hedges- We will give evergreen hedges a light trim to maintain shape, but avoid cutting into hardwood.
Soil care and improvement for your garden in winter
Healthy soil is the foundation of a thriving garden. Winter is an excellent time to enrich and prepare your soil for the spring, and we will:
- Dig over beds- We will turn over borders and flower beds to oxygenate the soil
- Add organic matter- We will add well rotted manure or compost into the soil to improve fertility and structure.
- Test soil pH- We will check the pH levels of the soil and add lime if the soil is too acidic
For high quality, professional and reliable gardens and grounds maintenance you can count on, all year round, get in touch with the experts today, here at Green Scenery. We are Preston’s leading garden and grounds maintenance experts for both commercial and residential properties.