The ultimate seasonal guide to caring for your winter garden
**Tidying up
**Digging is great exercise and a good way to keep warm outdoors. The problem is that digging wet soil destroys its structure and walking on wet ground compacts soil making it difficult to dig later on. Can’t win really!
However there are plenty of other warming outdoor chores to take care of. Weeds can be sprayed, leaves raked to add to compost bins and pruning chores attended to. Container plants (including indoor plants) can be re-potted to give them a kick-start in spring. Paths, decks and outdoor furniture can be scrubbed to rid them of slippery moss or mould.
**Frostbite
**Jack Frost leaves beautiful impressions but he also does a lot of damage. It pays to have a stash of frost cloth on hand to throw over your most precious frost-tender plants when frost is forecast. If you get caught out, frost damage can be alleviated by turning a sprinkler on plants before the sun reaches them. If foliage is blackened by frost, don’t prune it off until all danger of frost has passed. It will protect the lower parts of the plant from further damage. Plants which are lifted out of the ground by hard frost should be replanted once the soil has thawed and then watered well to help them settle again.
**Edibles for planting now
**Winter solstice marks planting time for several edibles, although if your soil is really cold and wet, delay planting for a few weeks. Garlic is planted on the shortest day and harvested on the longest. other edibles traditionally planted in winter include: strawberries, rhubarb, asparagus and all deciduous fruit trees, bushes and brambles. Dig well-rotted animal manure or lashings of compost together with slow-release fertiliser into the planting hole, as all these plants enjoy being well fed.
**Pruning
**Winter is often thought of as pruning time, but not all pruning is carried out at this time. Pruning that can be done includes culling unhealthy plants or those that block out winter sunshine, pruning fruit trees (except plums) and pruning roses. Consult a good pruning manual to check how to prune each plant, as they all have their idiosyncrasies, especially fruiting plants. Tidy up dead leaves around flaxes, astelias, daylilies and other clumping plants. If you’re unsure of when to prune a plant, the best rule to follow is to prune immediately after flowering.
**Rose planting
**Winter is also the best time for planting roses. Prepare planting holes by digging in well-rotted animal manure a few weeks prior to planting, or a bucketful of compost and handful of blood and bone at planting time. Water plants or soak bare-rooted plants thoroughly before planting. Trim off damaged or untidy roots. Plant so the bud union (graft) is at, or just above, ground level. Compact the soil around the roots, then water to settle plant into the ground. Prune the rose back leaving three to five strong well-spaced branches. Trim each branch back to an outward-facing bud, three or four buds from the base. Never plant roses where other roses have been growing. Find a new site or completely replace old soil with fresh soil.
**Trenching
**”Trenching” means preparing a large tree to be moved and winter is an opportune time. Dig a square trench, preferably as deep as the root system, around the drip line of the tree. Dig each side at weekly intervals to give the tree time to recover. Prune the top of the tree back by about one third. once all four sides have been “trenched”, leave the tree for another fortnight before easing it out. Use loppers or a pruning saw to cut through remaining roots. Wrap the root ball in hessian if the tree is being moved far. otherwise, drag it on a tarpaulin to a well-prepared hole in another part of the garden.
**Pests & Diseases
**Pests and diseases are not usually apparent in winter because many are lurking in the undergrowth in a dormant state. A winter clean-up spray of spraying oil (to kill insect eggs or suffocate scale insect) and copper sulphate to kill disease spores is therefore most important. Spray all deciduous plants and citrus a total of six times, alternating between copper and oil at one or two weekly intervals. Spray any other plants attacked by pests or disease over summer with oil for pests and copper for diseases. Neem oil and sulphur (used cautiously) are better choices for organic gardeners.
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