Steps to protect your garden over Winter

Posted under environment by Chester Moore

The days are drawing in and winter is almost here, with it comes all the inevitable jobs that need to be carried out in preparation for the cold months. The fruits of you labours in the garden are ready to be picked and the plants need a little care to ready them for the winter so they can spring back into life next year. Many of the indoor plants have finished flowering and will need a little work if they are to provide fresh flowers next year. If you want flowers indoors over the winter it is possible to buy flowers online that will thrive in the house with its central heating.

Get yourself organised, prepare to store some of the vegetables and fruit from the garden so you have a supply ready for use when you need them. Vegetables can be parboiled and frozen or made into pickles and chutneys. Most fruit can also be used for chutney and jam or cooked and frozen for pies and crumbles later in the year. Apples, particularly Bramley apples, can be stored in containers filled with straw or paper to be used later. If you have a glut of tomatoes that you don’t know what to do with, these also make a very good jam.

There are plenty of jobs to do in the rest of the garden to protect your favourite plants from the ravages of frost and snow. These preparations, done now, will tidy the garden as well as reduce the amount of work needed in the spring. The weeds need to be removed from the beds along with any of the annuals that have finished flowering and are looking straggly. Lily and gladioli bulbs that will not survive the winter should be lifted and allowed to dry before being stored away for replanting next year. Make sure that your shrubs remain healthy by checking for evidence of disease and cutting only those leaves or sections out, as it is not the time for pruning. There should still be a few fresh flowers in the garden that can be cut and used in the house.

Any perennials in the garden will need to be looked at and cut back to about six or eight inches in length. But before you do this look at the garden, you do not want it to look too bare, some perennials may have foliage that still looks good and it may be worth leaving them alone. Many gardeners collect seeds from vegetables and flowers for planting the following year, especially if they are good colours or crop well. If you do not have time or the place to store seeds you can always buy flowers online to fill the flower beds.

The plants that are staying in the garden will need some protection from the worst of the elements, though this should not be done too early as trapped moisture may encourage pests and disease. It is best to place several inches of mulch around the roots after the first frost. Patio pot plants can also be mulched to protect them, wrapping the pots in a protective layer such as bubble wrap will help protect ceramic pots from extreme temperatures as well as the plants themselves.

Now is the time to start planting pansies, ornamental cabbages, wall flowers and primroses in the garden and hanging baskets. These winter flowering plants stop the garden from looking so desolate providing fresh flowers amongst the bare branches of shrubs and trees. While doing that decide where you want to plant your favourite spring bulbs. There are a variety of bulbs to choose from such as snowdrops, crocuses, cyclamen, bluebells, hyacinth, daffodils and narcissi. If you can’t decide which to plant look at suppliers on the web and buy flowers online for the garden and any hanging baskets you may have. If you would like some colour inside the house you can buy prepared hyacinth bulbs for growing in hyacinth vases or pots. These will flower early next year and that will delight you with fresh flowers and fragrance.

Hyacinths are not the only fresh flowers to thrive in centrally heated houses during the winter. Many people are discovering the beauty of exotic indoor tropical plants such as orchids. The reason orchids do so well is that they need a minimum temperature achieved in our houses. As orchids gain in popularity they are becoming more readily available and are easy to buy flowers online. Growing orchids is addictive and once you have one it is inevitable that you will start collecting the different colours and varieties of orchids.

Although many of the potted orchids are from the tropics, not many people are aware that we have native orchids of our own. They can be found in the Scottish highlands and are able to survive the extremes of weather that are found there. There are varieties for the garden such as Lady’s Slipper Orchids, Marsh Orchids or Hyacinth Orchids. Why not add some to your order when you buy flowers online for planting in the garden next year?

Want to find out more about helping your garden through the winter and learn about how to buy flowers online? visit Interflora