Winter Garden Care
As the temperatures start to cool down, and the leaves of the trees are all turning various shades of red, yellow, orange, and brown, some essential pre-winter gardening jobs start to make it to our to-do lists.
Give your garden the best chance throughout winter by preparing it this month, and watch it come back and thrive as the temperatures warm up in spring.
Pre-Winter Pruning
November is a great time to do some necessary maintenance on your deciduous trees and shrubs. As these plants are well and truly dormant by this point, it is an ideal time to cut them back a little before they start growing back in the spring. It is also a great opportunity to get on top of any October pruning jobs that you haven’t had the chance to get to yet before winter truly sets in.
The VITA Garden Kit would be ideal for these types of tasks
Deciduous trees and shrubs that have overgrown or are producing too much shade may benefit from some pruning attention before winter. These include Acer, Sorbus, and Corylus plants, all of which are easier to prune without their leaves because you can see the shape of the trees naked branches. There are also some shrubs which would normally be hard-pruned in the spring but can be cut back by half in November. Some good examples are Buddlejas, Magnolias, and Cotinus. By pruning the main uprights in November, your tree or shrub is less likely to overcrowd when growing back in spring.
For some of the large pruning jobs, having some mechanical help certainly comes in handy and can save you a great deal of time. Yard Force has an amazing variety of cordless hedge trimmers that can do just the job you need. Take, for example, the Yard Force 40V LH G60 Cordless Hedge Trimmer. It has a long-lasting motor and a 20-minute runtime, which is more than enough for the average hedge-trimming job. And even if you have quite a large hedge that needs trimming, the batteries only need an hour to charge fully, so you could have one charging whilst the other is in use. Plus, it has a rotating rear handle with 180° of swivel motion, helping you to get to those hard-to-reach places.
Collecting Fallen Leaves
One of the familiar hallmarks that autumn is well and truly underway, is the wonderful fluttering of leaves from deciduous trees, and the brilliant colours that they decorate our lawns, pathways, and roads with. Whilst they are a wonderful, cosy sight, it is worth shifting them from your lawns and garden beds for several reasons.
If you have quite a large collection of fallen leaves on your lawn, there are benefits to at least raking them up into isolated piles to leave in your garden. This can provide an ideal habitat for hibernating animals like hedgehogs. However, if not removed from the lawn, the piles can damage the lawn underneath. The leaves don’t allow any sunlight or even moisture to reach the grass beneath it, meaning your lawn may take some time to recover the following spring. And on your garden beds, collections of leaves may lead to fungal problems. Finally, if you have quite a lot of leaves scattered across your paved areas, after wet weather they may pose a slight slipping hazard too.
Shifting the leaves may therefore be the best option for your garden. And one of the quickest ways to do this with ease is by using one of Yard Force’s 3-in-1 Cordless Blower Vac and Mulchers. This handy piece of kit can do it all when it comes to moving debris in the garden. For the larger jobs this is ideal, as it is cordless, comes with two 20-volt batteries, and has wheels to give you some extra support.
For some additional help for your plants through the winter, you can make use of these leaves if you use your Blower Vac’s mulching option. Mulched and collected into the 35L bag, these leaves are perfect for making a leaf mould. Your mulched leaves just need to be emptied into a hessian or compost bag, add a drop of water, then tie the bag up. Punch a few holes in to allow movement of air, and then leave them somewhere outside for 18 months to 2 years. If you do this every year, you should have some lovely leaf mould to use each winter. You can then use this as either a mulch to support your flower beds, or you can add it to your soil as a soil conditioner.
Keeping on top of your pre-winter jobs is a valuable practice to carry out this November, to help your garden to come back stronger next year. And by using Yard Force’s fantastic products, you can save precious time and effort, making carrying out these jobs brilliantly efficient.
Take a look at our full garden range for tools to help you around the garden this winter, use code DAVID for 10% discount.