When summer is almost gone and the sky breathes with autumn, you might notice that you do not spend so much time in your garden like you used to do just a couple of months ago. Nowadays seasons seem to change irrelevantly so you cannot rely on your calendar in terms of garden tidy up. But your first wakeup call will be dead leaves scattered on your lawn. It would be the first time at least to think about preparing your garden for winter. But do not dream that the garden cleanup is the only job to do before the winter shutdown.
Leaf collection might be a good starting point for your garden’s gradual preparation for the colder season. When you pick up the fallen leaves from under the trees and the corners in your garden, you will be able to evaluate the amount of work that will have to take place before everything is ready for the first frost. Note that the weather will only get worse and it certainly will not speed up the process. Rains will make weather conditions less suitable for gardening work and there will also be less time for it because days will be getting only shorter.
Preparing your garden for winter is not only abandoning it and tidying up. You should already be thinking about the spring when you would expect your garden to be re-opened for the new season. Thus consider feeding the soil by adding compost in autumn and do not be afraid of rainy winter. Try to ignore gardeners’ tips where they say that rain damages the quality of compost, because what rain really does is to wash nutrients into the soil rather than wash them out. Plus, dry spring has become a popular trend in recent years. So start adding compost now and continue throughout the winter.
Think about the birds that might come around in winter. Were you annoyed by them during the summer or do you think they can be useful during the cold season? A lot of things in this question will depend on the number of trees you have in your garden. A couple of bird feeders will definitely suit your wildlife and will attract birds that will help you to fight invisible winter pests. But if you are expecting the birds to be around your garden, do not forget to feed them during the season of shorter days.
No matter how much digging you were doing in the summer, you should stop doing it while preparing your garden for winter. If your soils is clay-rich and you tried to dig in autumn, then you would have realised it is a tough job. Plus digging in the rainy season is not good for the soil as well. This means if you are adding compost now, just spread it and leave it alone. It will make the process of addition happen naturally and gradually through the year.
If you think you will not be able to prepare your garden for winter on your own or simply will have no time for it, then it is advisable to ask for help from gardening professionals in Twickenham. They would certainly know how to spread compost on the soil, put bird feeders on a tree and do the leaf collection from the garden.