How to Prepare Your Garden for Winter

Preparing your garden during the winter is a crucial step to ensure that both the soil and plants are in optimal condition for spring. The tasks involved, of course, vary depending on the type of garden, but there are some essential tasks that apply to all and should be scheduled: removing leaves and dry branches, pruning, protecting from the cold, and thoroughly cleaning the tools.

Index of topics

Remove dry branches and leaves

Have you ever had to clean your house during the change of seasons? It's the same for the garden. You have to act in depth, eliminate dry branches and foliage, check that there are no neither parasites nor their eggs. Also dried flowers They need to be cut. This is a time when the garden needs some creative order.

Clean the tools

It is a fundamental step if we want to maintain the efficiency of our allies in the care of our green spaces, as well as to avoid bacterial infections or dirt contaminating plants and flowers, which is less rare than one might think, especially in the case of pruning shears. How to do? Water and a little dish soap for cleaning after each use, bicarbonate for disinfecting, steel wool against rust, alcohol and oil to prevent the formation of rust eggs and lubricate them. Finally, for more damaged tools you need a composed of mineral oil and sand in the proportion of 1 tablespoon of oil for every 5 of sand. Scrub well after leaving them for the blade in this mush, then remove with a clean cloth. Finally, always air dry the equipment after each use, it is the only way to prevent damage from humidity.

To plant

After checking that the ground is perfect for what we are going to to plant, and having made the necessary corrective (such as for a clayey soil) we move on to the planting of trees, shrubs and plants we have chosen. Who said it can't be done in the warm season too? It depends on the plants, especially those of pinkBulb flowers can also be planted in autumn, but not after November.

The right fertilization

Before winter arrives, a good gardener knows that he must renew and prepare the soil through a detailed and important work of fertilizationIt serves to offer essential minerals and nutrients for plants in spring, and it would be better to prefer a organic fertilization Made with natural fertilizers, keeping chemicals at bay. The solution? Compost (and a DIY composter, of course).

Cover delicate plants

Anyone who is passionate about gardening and green spaces has purchased at least once exotic, tropical plants, citrus fruits and purely summer flowers, who are at risk of dying as soon as the climate becomes colder. To avoid the risk of this happening, the solution is thermal agri-fabric sheets, which protect trees, shrubs, and plants from the frosts of winter mornings. Furthermore, we place the pots most exposed to the cold very close to the terrace walls, which already act as windbreaks.

Bringing winter plants back indoors

The same goes for the indoor plants that have been moved to the terrace, balcony, or garden to enjoy light and warmth. They should be repositioned in the interior corners of the home, taking care to respect their needs for light/shade, exposure, and temperature.

Taking care of your lawn and grass

Autumn is the perfect time for also fix the meadow, and the grass, so as to prepare for spring with the best green it can offer. Lush and bright. Everything, however, will depend on the initial quality of the lawn, whether it has been stressed or has yellowed or has dry or bald areas. As preliminary operations and valid for all types of lawn, simply make a careful cut and pour in all areas of the lawn. nitrogen fertilizer, preferably natural. The affected areas should be treated with a refoliating product, or, in the most serious cases, reseeding of the dying areas.

Arrange the garden furniture

Perfect and comfortable for relaxing on summer evenings and enjoying the first cool autumn breezes, garden furniture should be stored away for the winter to prevent water, humidity, bad weather, and cold from cracking and ruining it. The ideal would be to store it in a garage or in a warehouse, but in the absence of suitable spaces you can also opt for a portable gazebo to shelter them, a porch or some plastic sheets very durable. To clean our furniture before putting it away we use water and dish soap for both plastic, resin and wooden furniture, but the latter also need a pass of olive or linseed oil to polish them and keep them protected from humidity.

Flowerbeds in order

Using a rake, thoroughly clean off any twigs, leaves, and dry grass to allow the soil to breathe. If they're surrounded by hedges, remember to rejuvenate them with vigorous autumn pruning to encourage better growth.

Herbs

Le herbs These are perennial herbs that require little care but provide fragrance and small flowers in garden corners, balconies, or terraces year-round. They can tolerate cold temperatures, even though most herbs are Mediterranean. they grow with lots of sun and little water. So we need to recreate this situation: plenty of sun, and shelter from the elements. The best aromatic herbs? Parsley, chives, rosemary, marjoram, thyme, sageBasil? It's not perennial; it needs to be planted annually.