4 great ways to care for your garden in winter

Give your garden some love with these great ways to care for it this winter.

Boost the water retention

Help your garden make the most of the rain by applying a good soil wetting agent and aerate the soil under your lawns. Water that pools in certain places and then runs off is wasted, can carry away the nutrient-dense topsoil, and won’t help to water the roots of your plants in surrounding areas.

Weed out the weeds

Unfortunately, weeds don’t slow down in the winter so it’s important to keep on top of the weeds around your garden. Use a weed wand for lawn weeds like bindis and pull out any popping up in garden beds.

Applying mulch around plants can be an effective way to reduce weeds as well as help with water retention in garden beds. As mulch breaks down it can be a great way to passively feed your plants.

Prune back for good growth

Pruning many plants in winter helps to boost growth throughout your garden in spring and summer. Roses, deciduous trees, and hydrangeas are just a few of the plants that love a good trim during the colder months.

If you don’t have a green thumb and struggle with which plant is which, let alone what to trim back when, there are a range of plant identification apps, like Leafsnap and Plantsnap, that come to the rescue of the confused gardener. You simply take a photo of the plant and the app tells you what it is.

Some, like the app Picture This, will even give you tips on how to care for the plant.

Start planning for Spring

Head in out of the cold and start planning your spring planting and garden projects. You could do your bit for the local wildlife by encouraging native birds, bees, and insects like butterflies by adding the plants that help them thrive.

Plus, if you’ve got the space you might even like to add a beehive to help restore the bee population in your area.

Resources – https://www.landscapeassociation.com.au/news/plant-identification-made-easy/