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Your garden is all snug as a bug for the winter, but your green thumb is itching to do something outside in the yard. What’s a gardener to do? Well, there are a few things that you could busy yourself with if the mood strikes. With that in mind, we’ve gathered a few garden tips for the winter that might satisfy your need for some wintry fresh air.
5 garden tips for the winter
Here are a few tasks you could be doing in your yard before spring—depending on the weather conditions.
1. Protect your plants
Road salt wreaks havoc on plants and soil. In areas of heavy salt use, soil salinity rises and vital soil life can be affected, not to mention all those tender plant roots and evergreen foliage that simply can’t tolerate being exposed to salt on a regular basis. Protect roadside plantings from salt spray with a shield of landscape fabric erected into a fence with wooden stakes. Shrub covers can help protect hedges and shrubs in higher-risk areas of the garden. For planting areas adjacent to walks and drives, choose salt-tolerant plants or rely on salt-free ice melters, like calcium chloride or magnesium chloride, instead.
2. Build a compost bin
Pay a winter visit to your local garden center and ask them for some used wooden pallets to make yourself a compost bin. Many garden centers are happy to get rid of extra pallets and some may even arrange to deliver them to your door. Once the pallets are home, use them to build one or more three-sided bins. Use extra-large plastic zip-ties to fasten them together, giving each bin a back and two sides. Locate your new composting system in a mostly sunny site, and you’ll be up to your elbows in black gold before you know it.
3. Do some winter pruning
There is some pruning that you can do during the winter months. Blueberries, some types of hydrangeas, rose of Sharons, and ornamental grasses can all be pruned at certain points of the winter. You may also want to get rid of a dead tree. With no foliage to cloud their work, many arborists are more than happy to cut down trees that have to go at this time of year.
4. Keep an eye on winter crops
Year-round veggie gardeners need to keep an eye on their season extenders, removing snow from cold frames and mini hoop tunnels after a storm. If heavy snow is allowed to accumulate, it blocks sunlight from reaching the crops, but it can also damage the structures. Use a sturdy broom or plastic shovel to remove snow. Depending on the cover, you may also need to vent your garden, occasionally.
5. Plan for a new garden
Planning a new garden bed for next summer in an area where grass or weeds are currently growing? Make it easy on yourself by starting the project right now—if there is no snow, of course. Try sheet mulching. First, place a thick layer of newspaper or cardboard over the area, then pile on alternating layers of organic material like compost, leaves, pine needles, untreated grass clippings, and straw. In the spring, the grass and weeds underneath the pile will be dead, and your new garden bed will be ready to plant! You can also plan out a raised bed garden.
If you relish the time off from outdoor chores and prefer to cozy up indoors, delve into the seed catalogues that will start appearing in the mail!
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