Ways to Tend to Your Garden this Winter

Keep your garden healthy this chilly season

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to the Fontana Ponds & Water Features blog. We’re a team of experienced landscapers located in Langley who are experienced in high-end landscaping design and architecture. Winters up here in British Columbia are anything but lively when it comes to the outdoors. The flowers are in hibernation, the grass is dim from the snow, and the leaves from the trees have fallen from their branches. While this seems like the best time to ignore the garden and wait until spring to tend to it, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Winter is a great time to ready your garden for the spring because nothing is growing, making maintenance an easier task. Here are a few things to be on top of this winter.

Lay down mulch

If you have a garden with shrubs and flowers, you should make sure it’s covered with mulch during the frosty months. Mulch can help protect your perennials and more from the extreme frost and the dry air that often accompany winter. Mulch is inexpensive and you can pick it up just about anywhere!

Till the soil

Ever consider composting? You might as well start this November by tilling the soil! As the cold air rolls in, the weeds, grass, and other plants will begin to die and then decompose. You can dig up some of this decomposed organic matter and compost it; you can then use the composted material to provide your plants with nutrients during the cold months. Any extra something can help keep your dormant plants healthy.

Pull away weeds

Surprisingly enough, winter is the ideal time to get rid of weeds in the garden. Often, when people pull weeds out, they don’t get the entirety of the plant out and the spores from it are still able to spread and repopulate. In the winter, though, the weeds are dead and removing them helps mitigate against them growing again in the spring. Don’t forget to use the weeds you pull from the ground as compost, too!

Plan to prune trees

Fall is the absolute worst season to prune trees because they have more difficulty repairing the wounds and autumn is when disease spores are floating through the air. However, the neighboring season, winter, is the best time to prune old branches because trees are the least susceptible to contracting a disease during this time and pruning them preps them for regrowth in the summer and spring.

Grow some winter veggies

Some vegetables thrive during the winter, and growing them now can give you something fun to do until the flowers bloom again. Some winter vegetables include spinach, radishes, and turnips. Use the compost material from your tilling and de-weeding to help your vegetable garden flourish!

Thanks for reading and happy holidays! If you’re in need of assistance with winter garden, don’t hesitate to contact your landscapers here at Fontana Ponds & Water Features in Langley. We offer tree pruning, landscape design, and so much more! Give us a call today!