Have you ever wondered why your plants die in winter? Follow these simple tips to protect and enhance your plants’ growth in the cold and have your garden ready to thrive by spring!
Some flowers like tulips and roses are conditioned to grow in chilly weather and will help your winter garden look great by the summer. Planting new flowers like azaleas, proteas, daisies, camellias, gladiolus, pansies, primulas, phlox, snapdragons, and strelitzias before the winter strikes will help your garden to stand out in the spring. Flowers like these can also be planted in clay pots, making it easier for you to rearrange your garden decorations and even decorate your house inside.
Always remember to remove any weeds from your garden as they compete with your other plants for water, nutrients, and sunlight. Proper weed management will allow your flowers to have more nutrients for themselves. When killing weeds, always use homemade and organic herbicide recipes instead of chemical solutions which may kill some of your flowers and plants along with the weeds.
Mulch is materials, like bark chips, added to the surface to protect your garden against frost and to block weeds. Remember to remove all the weeds in your winter garden before applying the mulch layer, if you do not, current weeds might spread. Mulching your garden helps to keep the roots warm, protects them from the freezing weather and provides them with enough nutrients to help them grow. Always remove the old layer of mulch before adding a new layer.
Do not mix your mulch with your soil; let it be a layer on top of your soil. This will help to protect the nutrient balance of each. Also, remember to apply your mulch in such a way that it does not touch your house or any trees as this may cause pests in your garden from using it to enter your home or the trees.
Yes, because compost supplies organic nutrients and boosts the vitality of the plants in your garden. To produce mouth-watering vegetables, you must add compost to the growing process. Compost also encourages the blooming of flowers in your garden. This is a wonderful way to reprocess nutrition back into the soil. The soil becomes healthier and produces more nutrients for your plants to grow in your winter garden.
The plants in your winter garden are not dormant, so be sure to water them, but not as much as you would during spring and summer. Watering your garden early in the day will allow your plants to get the nutrients from the water before it freezes later in the night. Check that the soil is thawed when you water your garden, to allow the water to be absorbed into the soil immediately. Also, remember to only add small portions of water giving the water time to mix well with the soil. When watering your winter garden, remember to use a hose-end vaporiser. Auto-sprinkler attachments can be damaged by frost that spreads over it.
You can move potted plants inside to protect them from the cold but remember to take them out again during the day so that they can soak up some sunlight and prevent damage to their roots.
You can cover your outdoor plants individually with a frost cloth. Always remember that it is important to cover your plants right down to the soil line of the garden as this will help the plant to absorb the heat from the soil. For smaller plants, you can use an upside-down bucket which will work the same as a frost cloth. Wrapping younger trees with burlap is another way to protect them against frost which may kill them. Remember to secure the burlap with rope or tape.
Following these simple tips will ensure that your winter garden is ready to fight off the cold and ice!
Seasonal vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, celery, green onions, kale, leaks, and parsnips, can be tastier when it grows in the winter. These vegetables react to the cold weather to generate extra sugar within the crop, making the vegetable sweeter. There are benefits to growing your own vegetables, like saving money, improving your health, and making your garden colourful during the chilly winter months.
There are many indoor growing starter kits available in online stores to help you to grow small vegetables in your kitchen. These systems have LED lighting, which acts like sunlight and self-watering systems to supply the soil or other growing medium with water.
After winter has passed and spring arrives, there are many tips and tricks to keep in mind. The first thing you need to do is to remove contaminated plants. Also, remove all the weeds that grew in the winter that you may have missed.
Remove the mulch layer and add new topsoil to the garden. This will make the soil nutritious and ready for the plants to grow efficiently. Loosening the soil in your garden beds will allow rainwater to drain directly into the soil.
Gardening is not only a relaxing activity for yourself, but it is also a fantastic outdoor activity to do with your children. You can spend family time together teaching them some winter gardening tips, growing more plants together, tidying up your yard and making long-lasting memories. With these gardening tips, your garden will look well cared for throughout the winter and will be ready when spring arrives. Who knew there is so much to do with your garden in the winter?