Top Tips for Gardening Outdoors in Winter

If you are relatively new to gardening, you might have assumed that attempting to do it in the winter would be a non-starter. However, some greenery can actually flourish outdoors in winter!

Here are several tips for making the most of this resilience. You might also be surprised to learn how investing in outdoor planter boxes from our online store can assist you in that effort.

Prune and Thin Out Trees in Your Garden 

By taking this action, you can allow sunlight easier access to the ground. The natural light that reaches this area can reduce the risk of snow and ice lingering long enough to damage plants in the garden.

Remove Mature Crops

Your garden may currently have certain crops, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans, that once provided you with vegetables but have since ceased to be productive. In this situation, you can replace the crops with winter-friendly ones such as lettuce, kale and spinach.

Be Careful Which Plants You Opt For

For example, while roses can make great additions to a winter garden, you should make sure the roses you choose are healthy in appearance and resistant to disease.

What if your tastes lean more towards the subtropical? The cold-hardy plants you could consider in this category include ligularia, fatsia, heuchera and rodgersia.

Apply Mulch to Protect Shrubs’ Roots

Mulch ado about nothing? On the contrary, it can make all the difference in winter by helping to keep the soil warm and moist enough to facilitate healthy plant growth. You can create mulch from pea straw, newspaper, old sacks and carpet.

Move Frost-Tender Plants to Sheltered Areas 

Examples of such plants include frangipani, bromeliads and gardenias — all of which will need a little extra attention as temperatures plummet. So, it can pay for you to shift these plants to shaded areas — e.g. under eaves or against walls — as winter arrives.

You can relocate plants more easily when they are grown in outdoor planter boxes. We offer these in Aluzinc, a steel-and-aluminium amalgam renowned for its corrosion resistance. For more information, please phone (021) 161 1430.