7 Winter Gardening Chores
7 Winter Gardening Chores
“A gardener’s work is never done.”
Truer words were never spoken. We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The holidays seem to be upon us. The first snow has fallen and holiday decorations have undoubtedly been sighted in your neighborhood. Though the air is colder and you’ve turned the heat on, there are still some chores that need to be completed around the yard this season. To celebrate the arrival of December, we have compiled a checklist of 7 Winter Gardening Chores.
7 Winter Gardening Chores
- The most obvious one here is clean the leaves off your lawn. While most people get this, some may think it’s ok to leaf them on the lawn. We heard one person say, “Let them rot.” Well, I’m afraid rot is definitely what they will do. They will cause your lawn to be weak and the leaves you end up cleaning in the spring will be mushy as well as your grass. Roots will be weak and you will be clearing more than just leaves off your lawn. And don’t forget to clean up your garden beds. There are a myriad of insects that love to spend the winter in garden debris. Roses, Montauk daisies all have little mites that will use this garden debris to over winter.
- Be sure to bring in any furniture, tools, and pots you might have left out this fall. You don’t want them to get damaged over the winter from the snow and freezing temperatures.
- Add a winter mulch. When the ground has frozen, and plants have entered dormancy, it’s time to add winter mulch to your garden. Winter mulch will ensure that your garden soil stays a constant cool temperature. Mulching in early winter also helps prevent rodents from building nests in it.
- If you haven’t kept up with your pruning you can still prune throughout the winter but be careful to only prune plants that do not flower in the spring. Remove branches that are dead. A plant under attack often starts in weakened or dead areas, so removing poor or dead branches will prevent insects from settling in over the winter. This will also encourage new growth in the spring.
- Do one last weeding. This can be done even after a first snowstorm. You’ll notice winter annuals coming in that can be a nuisance come spring time.
- Bring your garden hose, nozzles and sprinklers inside. Leaving them out can result in the spigot breaking from frozen water that is trapped. Mold and mildew can also build up in a hose that is left out. Don’t forget to drain the water out first. Ideally all the water would be drained out, however, inevitably there’s always that annoying trickle left to get on your legs. Ugh.. A trick I do is to attach the male and female ends together. This keeps any little bits of water from leaking out onto myself or stuff that is in the garage or basement. Also, don’t forget to shut off the water inside the basement. This will keep frozen water from ruining your water spigot.
- Finally, don’t forget to drain the gas out of your equipment. Gas these days has a short shelf life. Blowers, weed whackers, trimmers, and mowers are all susceptible to major damage if gas is left inside them for extended periods. When we are done with the season, we carefully empty out all the tanks and run the motors until they do not run anymore. That removes all gas that could go bad from the carburetors. This little job alone could save you major time and money next spring.
Getting outside when the temperatures start to plummet can be challenging but it is a good excuse to get out there and get some last fresh air before we turn all our attention indoors. We hope you’ve enjoyed these blogs. Find us on Google and give us a review. We’d love to hear from you! Naturescape, LLC
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