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How to Maintain Your Garden in Winter
Winter can be harsh on your garden, but not when you know how to maintain it. It takes a bit of effort from your side to show your garden that you care about it.
This article will tell you precisely the best way to do it.
1.Relocation
No, you don’t have to relocate the entire garden (that’s impossible too). But small plants grown in the containers should be relocated indoors. Leaving them outdoors will inevitably promote leaf shed eventually destroying the whole plant.
By relocation, the warmth in the house helps them stay strong through the winter. This tip is essential in the case of tropical plants that need humidity to thrive.
Your indoor plants do not survive by humidity alone. They need their daily dose of sunlight, as well. Place your indoor plants in the brightest spot of the house to bring constant sunlight and less wind to them.
2.Off With The Sick Parts
Winter is the perfect time for you to clean your garden to make it look beautiful in the upcoming spring and autumn. As there is not any planting and harvesting to do during this season, you should definitely consider cleaning.
The first step of your cleaning is to remove contaminated (infected and rotting) parts as leaving them as they are, will destroy the healthy parts by the end of winter. Small damaged areas can be plucked off with bare hands but for harder regions, you may need to use pruning shears.
But don’t forget to be careful around the healthy plant portions as you may accidentally chop them off too.
1.Weed out
Take time to remove the weeds surrounding your plants. Weeds suck up the nutrients and water you give your plants thereby tampering their growth.
While removing the weeds, be careful not to disturb the roots of the plants beside them. Weed removal takes hard work and quite a lot of patience. Among several brands of mowers, Honda always gets top ratings due to work efficiency.
Bonus tip: In the next planting season, reduce the gap between your plants as less space in the soil prevents extensive growth of weed.
2.Mulching
Mulching implies covering the soil gap between the plants with a layer of organic material (like dry leaves). Maintain one or two inches of distance from the stems while doing it. This will also keep the underlying layer of soil warm enough for the plant roots in it to thrive.
By the next planting season when you reduce the space between the plants, weed will try to protrude again. This is why mulching should immediately follow weed removal.
3.No Frequent Feeding and Watering
Spring and autumn seasons are the times when your plant gets hungry and needs regular feeding and fertilizing. This is not the case in winter.
Your plants need less nutrition overall. Water them once a week but keep a check on the moisture level of the soil. Forget feeding but if you like to, you can spray (diluted) fertilizer once or twice in the entire season.
4.Exclusive Care
Winter care varies slightly from plant to plant.
Relocated (indoor) pot plants can persist when they are provided with enough humidity and sunlight. But outdoor plants need special care and attention.
If you have any recently planted trees, check for cracks in the soil surrounding them and refill those cracks with soil. To protect the plants from being grazed by animals, use tree guards before it starts to snow.
For flowering plants, use a bubble wrap to enclose the budding zones. This will prevent withering of the stem due to snow and frost.
Maintenance of cleanliness forms the major part of your plant care during winter. By following the above measures, you can keep your garden healthy for the spring season that follows. Don’t forget to regenerate compost as a part of this prep.
Harper Harrison is a reporter for The Hear UP. Harper got an internship at the NPR and worked as a reporter and producer. harper has also worked as a reporter for the Medium. Harper covers health and science for The Hear UP.