Garden

7 ways to prepare your garden for winter

In the words of Jon Snow ‘Winter is coming’ – but is your garden prepared? If it is then I take my hat off to you, go you – look at you being all organised and stuff! But if it isn’t prepared and in particular, if you’re wondering what on earth preparing your garden for Winter will entail, this is the post for you – 7 ways to prepare your garden for Winter. 

Now really is the perfect time to get your garden winter-ready, before the weather gets too wet and cold and you really don’t feel like venturing out there.

If you’ve read any of my gardening posts, you’ll know that gardening is a fairly new interest of mine. In fact up until recently I wouldn’t have had too much of a clue what to do for winter either.  With that in mind, I thought it would be useful to create a little checklist of what you should be doing in your garden right now to prepare it for Winter.

So here we go …

7 ways to prepare your garden for winter

1# Tidy the lawn

If you dream of a luscious lawn, you need to start the groundwork now (uh bad pun, I’m sorry). Rake all the leaves and add to compost if you can, raking should allow the lawn to breathe. You can use a fork to arreate it too, to avoid drainage issues over the winter months. Don’t worry too much about raking the flower beds though, as leaves provide a snuggly little blanket, to help protect your plants from frost.  Continue to mow the lawn as required, but don’t take it too short or it may not survive the Winter very well.   

prepare your garden for winter

2# Shape shrubs and trim hedges

Prune your shrubs and hedges. Don’t go too crazy, otherwise you could expose them to frost damage – but now is the time to get them looking neat and tidy in order to give yourself a head start for the following spring.

prepare your garden for winter

3# Remove summer bedding plants and replace with winter ones

Out with the old and in with the new. Remove all your bedding plants from summer that are starting to look a little jaded and add some new ones to ensure that you’ll still have some splashes of colour.

Great plants for Autumn/Winter include:

  • Chrysanthemum
  • Pansies
  • Violas
  • Sweet William
  • Forget-me-nots

I couldn’t resist this gorgeous giant Chrysanthemum ball in burnt orange, it’s just so Autumnal – it makes me want to break out the hot chocolate and cosy sweaters.

prepare your garden for winter

prepare your garden for winter

4# Plant spring bulbs

Plan ahead – now is the time to think about adding bulbs that will flower and provide some beautiful colour in the new year. For impact, plant in clusters – odd numbers are most pleasing to the eye. 

Bulbs to plant this Autumn:

  • Crocus
  • Snow drops
  • Tulips
  • Daffodils

prepare your garden for winter

5# Store outdoor furniture

Protect your outdoor furniture ready for the following year. Ideally bring it inside or store in a shed, alternatively cover it with secure, waterproof covering.

6# Plant shrubs so that they can mature

If like me, you have some large empty spaces in your garden that your planning to fill with shrubs, don’t hang around. Get them in the ground now and give them an opportunity to establish themselves over the winter months.

7# Divide perennials and replant

If you have perennials that are starting to get  a bit too big for their boots, you can divide them with a spade. Replant elsewhere in the garden, just make sure that the soil conditions are similar and they should thrive in their new position.  

Fancy some more gardening related reads? Thought so! Head over and read my tips for saving money on your garden.

A huge thank you to my Mum who is always my first port of call when it comes to gardening tips. She gave me some great ideas for this blog post! 

What tips would you add to prepare your garden for Winter? Let me know in the comments below.  

Pin for later?

Easy ways to prepare your garden for Winter. If you need some tips on gardening for begginers, here are some easy tasks to do this autumn to ensure your garden is winter ready and save yourself work in Spring.

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6 Comment

  1. Juan Sandiego
    September 30, 2017 at 9:25 am

    Thank you for the tips, Caroline! I’ve been neglecting the garden recently. And, except changing the seasonal flowers, I have to do all the other points. Not looking forward to the leafs covering everything…

    1. Caroline
      September 30, 2017 at 10:48 am

      No, me neither! I still need to mow the lawn before all they all fall, it’s like a jungle out there.

  2. Choice Furniture Superstore
    October 12, 2017 at 10:35 am

    These are really great tips for preparing a garden for winter. Thanks for sharing this awesome post.

    1. Caroline
      October 12, 2017 at 6:58 pm

      Thank you! I’m still working my way through the list even though I wrote it ?

  3. Anne Marie
    October 12, 2017 at 9:19 pm

    Oh, if only some kind of fairy could show up in my garden and do all that for me… It’s like this post is written for me and it’s laughing at my face 🙁 My garden is so not ready for winter and it seems there’s not enough hours in a day to even start thinking about it! But it must be done! So hopefully this weekend I will be able to tick most of it out of the list (although from what they say we might still need those garden chairs this weekend – fingers crossed!) 🙂

    1. Caroline
      October 15, 2017 at 10:08 am

      Oh I know exactly what you mean! I try to do at least an hour every Sunday but it’s not enough really.

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