For many gardeners across the US and Canada, there’s a lot to do at this time of the year. It’s getting colder in the Northern Hemisphere, and we’re all working to get our homes, our gardens, and ourselves ready for the chilly weather to come. Winterizing for gardeners can be a multifaceted process—we have to consider our lawns, our landscaping, our homes, our plants, and many other things. While we can’t offer you a definitive checklist for how to winterize your garden or your home, we can offer some suggestions of things that often get overlooked when the seasons change and winter is coming.
Let’s start with some of the obvious chores for this time of the year: caring for plants. Of course we all need to provide shelter for cold sensitive plants by either bringing them inside or by providing them with some outdoor protection when temperature drops. However, the cold months might also be a good time to prune trees and shrubs depending on their species, so don’t forget to check and see if your landscaping needs a bit of a haircut. Likewise, give your grass some love and care as things cool down so it can look its best in the spring.
Cold weather generally means less garden time, which makes it a good time of the year to give our tools some care. Well-made, high-quality garden tools should last for years, but they do require sharpening, oiling, and other maintenance. Lawn mowers and other motorized tools need their own particular care and maintenance—especially before going into winter storage—so spend some time putting them away properly in order to make life much easier when the seasons change and you need them again.
Speaking of maintenance: fall and winter tend to be rough on some of the infrastructure of our homes and gardens. So before it gets too cold or starts to freeze, it’s best to clean out the gutters and any drains in the garden or landscaping, cover spigots and faucets to prevent freezing, and winterize sprinklers and irrigation systems. Frozen water can do a lot of damage to pipes, hoses, and drains resulting in expensive repairs and problems, so a little bit of prevention is worth a lot of cure.
Don’t forget your compost heap! Composters and compost heaps need to be winterized too in order to ensure that they stay healthy and active all through the cold months. Compost heaps are complex micro-environments filled with living things and they’ll need a bit of help in extremes of weather. We’ve written blogs about how to care for compost heaps so please give them a look and adopt the practices that are best for your composter and your environment.
Like your compost heap, mulch is a living part of your garden and needs to be refreshed from time to time. Fall and winter can be a great time to refresh your mulch, as a nice thick healthy layer of mulch can help protect your soil from weather damage and help your shrubs, bushes, and trees survive the winter. As with composting, we’ve written about mulch several times so please review that information and use it to your best advantage. Mulch is one of those garden features that requires regular care in order to look and function its best.
Finally, if you have the space, don’t forget the insects and wildlife that are part of our world and our gardens. There are a number of ways to help support wildlife in winter, create a bird-friendly garden and feed our feathered friends, and provide habitat for the animals and insects that help nature thrive. Gardens are part of the natural world and a reminder that we all share the same planet, so if possible spare some though for the other residents of your garden space.
Gardening never ends, and there’s always more to do. We hope these suggestions help you winterize your garden and prepare your garden space for cold weather. If we missed anything or if you have tips to share, please let us know!
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