Garden care during autumn and winter

To have a healthy, flourishing and beautiful garden it is important to remember that caring for your garden is an all year task. Whilst gardening in the spring and summer may be more appealing, to keep your garden looking its best it needs to looked after during the autumn and winter too.

Gardening during the different seasons requires you to tackle different gardening tasks as the garden will have different care requirements. Not only do the different seasons have their own season specific maintenance tasks but different flowers, veg and fruit need to be planted during specific time periods to grow during different seasons.

Here we look at a few garden care tasks for the autumn and winter to help keep your garden healthy -

Autumn

* Plant - plant seeds of cold hardy annuals for extended winter bloom. Spring flower bulbs such as daffodils and tulips can also be planted in the autumn to allow flowers to germinate from the soil at the right time in spring to give a bloom of colour. Vegetables such as garlic, broad beans and peas can also be planted during autumn.

* Transplant - autumn is a good time for transplanting because thanks to regular rain showers the soil has sufficient moisture which is beneficial to transplanting work

* Lawn TLC - rake up fallen leaves on the lawn to prevent them blocking sunlight and rotting on your lawn which will cause damage to the lawn’s health

* Weed - deal with tough, deep rooted and woody weeds during the autumn to stop them getting stronger over winter

* Prune - cutting plants, shrubs and bushes encourage new growth and pruning certain plants such as roses protects them wind rock that can damage roots

Fruit and veg that grow well in autumn - cabbage, broccoli, sprouts, pumpkins, pears, apples and cranberries.

Winter

* Improve drainage - areas of lawn that get heavy traffic such as play areas often become compacted which can cause problems with drainage, weeds and moss so use the winter months to improve drainage

* Feed- spread a new layer of mulch in winter to feed plants in the coming seasons

* Protect - as the colder, harsher weather can take its toll protect plants in the garden against the weather, for example use polyspun garden fabric handy to cover annuals if frost threatens

* Maintain basic garden task - continue to weed, water and watch for pests

* Help wildlife - try not to tidy up too much as many creatures such as hedgehogs will use dead leaf piles and logs as hibernation cover and flowers and berries from bushes as valuable winter food sources. Try to provide fresh water too by adding logs/stones to ponds or leaving a pebbled filled dish filled with water as a watering hole for birds and ground dwellers

Fruit and veg that grow well in winter - apples, pomegranates, citrus fruit, pears, carrots, peas, potatoes, garlic and asparagus.

Looking after your garden during autumn and winter will ensure your garden is healthy ready to flourish in spring and summer. By maintaining garden care during the harsher months your garden will be in a good way ready for spring gardening with less work to do than if you neglected your garden during autumn and winter.

If you are not green fingered, have little time to dedicated to your garden or struggle to cope with the physical task of gardening but want your garden healthy and looking its best why not consider hiring a gardener. Gardeners offer a range of garden services from general garden maintenance, lawn care, landscaping and garden redesign, plant care and consultation so you can find a gardener that suits your requirements to help you achieve your dream garden.

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