The bitter temperatures that winter brings aren’t always forgiving to our gardens and plants. The way you look after and protect your garden in the winter months will pave the way for how your plants produce and perform in the new year. No one wants their once thriving vegetable patch to be filled with weeds, and precautions need to be put in place to stop this from happening. Not only does prepping your garden for winter protect your existing plants, but it also helps revitalise and recharge your soil ahead of the new season.
Consider Artificial Lawn Whether you’re based in New York or Bromley, artificial grass is a method of ensuring that your garden doesn’t suffer the consequences of winter. Since it isn’t a natural solution, synthetic grass isn’t affected by environmental conditions, meaning that it’s able to withstand the wintry frosts. Similarly, it won’t drown as a result of the repetitive rainfall that is often experienced in winter.
Remove All Spent Vegetables
When left to decay and rot, vegetable plants can cause serious problems for the following growing season. Therefore, it’s imperative that you remove your spent vegetable winter plants in anticipation of the winter season. Old rotting plants are ideal environments for pest populations and disease to fester in. This creates problems for when these plants drop seeds that will continue to germinate and steal even more nutrients. Therefore, dying plants should be pulled and cleared from your garden as soon as possible. Similarly, you’ll need to dispose of any fruit or veg that may have fallen to the ground.
Add Back Organic Matter
We’re often led to believe that preparing a garden for winter means that you should merely leave it bare and exposed. However, this isn’t necessarily the case. Instead, you should be adding some power to your soil by incorporating some organic matter. Typically, winter isn’t the ideal time to be growing vegetables, making it the perfect time to power your soil.
Since vegetables soak up all the soil’s valuable nutrients for growth, your soil will suffer as a result if not properly treated. Key minerals such as phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen will slowly disappear from soil over time, which isn’t helpful to your future plants. Organic matter can be added in the form of shredded leaves, animal manure, or compost. The nutrients of each of these will break down and leach into the soil during the winter months ready for the new growing season.
Cover Soil
One of the biggest mistakes that you can make as a gardener is to leave your soil bare and exposed throughout winter for multiple reasons. Firstly, this allows valuable garden soil to be swept away and erode. Secondly, it permits weeds to find a path to lie in. The best way that you can protect your soil and the organic matter that you’ve layered over the top is by planting a covering crop. Not only does this protect your soil from the potential threats of winter, but it also provides it with the nutrients it was previously lacking. However, if it isn’t
possible for you to plant a covering crop, you should implement other measures to cover your soil. This can come in the form of a large tarp or a thick coat of straw or leaves.
Conclusion
Make sure that your garden is in the prime position to tackle winter with the above tips. You can make certain that the following growing season will be one of the best with the right measures in place. Take pride in your garden this winter.
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