WINTER GARDENING JOBS

WINTER

It might be winter but there is still plenty to do in the garden, especially as there are so many less daylight hours available.

December and January give you a chance to catch up on jobs for the coming year, lift any winter vegetables and prepare the ground for the next season in particular using the frost to help breakdown the soils. December is also a great time to use some of the garden foliage for making wonderful Christmas wreaths and decorations.

Whether you are preparing a border or the vegetable garden, you need to be digging and preparing for next year. If you are getting into the flower border or fruit cage, then you should be pruning a number of plants including rose and fruit trees. Once you have pruned then you can look to dig the borders and vegetable plots. Look at digging them over and giving a good covering of manure or compost and then let the frosts help to break down the soils.

When digging in the vegetable plot you can choose to do a light dig and add compost or if you are not rotating your crops then maybe a chance to change the soil with a layered approach with a double dig method. Double digging is really beneficial when starting a new vegetable garden or a new border. The system is simple, dig a spade depth trench, discarding the soil to one side, then fork another spade depth again with a little bit of compost. Dig a second trench and add the dig from the second trench to the first trench, then fork in with some compost, dig a third trench and add to the second, if you do a forth trench then you will be adding the first dig soil to that one.

Another key thing to do in the winter is a thorough clean of your fencing, patios, bird feeders and your pots. Before you know it, it will be spring and suddenly you have so many jobs to do, so December is a great time to potter in the garden and get these jobs done. It is ideal to clean down your fences and apply some wood preservative to protect form any winter rotting. Cleaning all your tools is another great idea, give then a really good wash and scrape down then rub down with a drop of oil.

Compost as much as you can over winter as well, if you have not gathered any fallen leaves yet then get these collected in the compost, along with any pruning you have done. If you have been thinking about getting a compost bin, then now is the time to get one, or you could make one out of old pallets. Attaching four pallets together with a lining of cut black bags with holes in them will work really well. For the lid, why not add a piece of carpet which will keep the heap warm on the odd sunny day in winter and help with the breaking down of the compost.

As it is Christmas why not see what you have in your garden to use to make a wreath, even the smallest garden it likely to have some branches and a bit of ivy with some holly would look lovely and it is a great way to get children involved with the garden too. You could even make a great Christmas display with a decent sized stick branch, spray it silver or gold and then add some small baubles.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY GARDENING.