Instructions for Preparing Your Yard and Garden for Wintertime

Having a garden offers a lot of advantages. For starters, it beautifies your environment. There is nothing like a piece of green and color to turn a drab space into a living and breathing sanctuary. Then there are also the benefits of having plants to your immediate environment. Having a garden is one of the best ways to purify the air around your house. If you have an herb or a vegetable garden, then you could easily enjoy natural produce without having to go to the market or store.

But as they say, gardens don't tend themselves. Gardens need caring particularly during the wintertime. One of the things that you need to know is that most crops do not die during the winter season. They just lie dormant. Still, without doing something to protect your plants from the cool temperature, they can easily freeze over and wither. If you have a garden, you don't have to worry about the coming of the winter season as long as you know what to do to keep your plants thriving. The key lies in proper preparation. When you prep your garden, you can be sure that your land will be most fertile and rich in nutrients come the following season. The right preparation can also lead to healthier plants and larger harvests.


Below are some tips for preparing your yard and garden for winter.

1. Do some type of evaluation

When the frozen months start to set in, that's a good time for you to perform some evaluation of your garden. To do this, you can ask yourself the next few questions: Which plant has grown best this year? Which one was difficult to grow? Which plant ought to be planted again next year? Which plant should I stop having for my garden? You should take note of your answer on a piece of paper so you can review them later on when spring arrives. It is important to do your evaluation before the coming of the next spring season to give yourself some time to prepare for what you can do next year. Evaluation should also be done on or just before the coming of winter when data about the plants you planted within the year is still fresh on your mind.

2. Clean up Your Front yard

After doing an evaluation of your garden it is now time to do some physical work. Before wintertime sets in, you must be able to clean up your garden completely. You should carry away all leaves, branches and other organic stuff because they generate gases that can be harmful to plants. It may be necessary for you to rake every day for a few weeks before wintertime comes. When leaves and other debris are left in your garden, they tend to hold liquid from the snow. Slightly wet leaves and debris can come to be the breeding ground for mold and even for diseases that can affect the overall health of your plants. By cleaning your yard, you can also make certain that daylight and nourishment will continue to seep into your lawn even during the winter months. When the weather is cold, the pH balance in the land gets balanced which in turn can lead to healthier soils. Routine raking can also help aerate your lawn so by the time that spring arrives they will be greener and healthier.

3. Control the Unwanted Plants in Your Lawn

Another significant task to do to prepare your garden or yard for the cold season is to control weeds. If you don't wish to see weeds come next spring, then you should take care of them before winter comes. What you need to know about weeds is that they continue to grow through the entire year. This is what makes them distinct from the grass in your lawn. Because they are growing constantly, you need to keep watch all the time and eradicate them as they appear. This is the only way to make sure that weeds will stop sprouting. If you will wait for winter before you take care of the weeds, you will have a tough time regulating them when spring arrives.

4. Take Good care of the Soil

Taking care of your soil should also be part of the winter preparation for your garden. To do this, you should include some compost or fertilizer to your land. As mentioned earlier, many of the plants within your garden just rest dormant throughout the wintertime, they don't really die. To continuously nourish them throughout winter, you should make sure that additional fertilizer is stashed in your soil. So even if your yard will be blanketed by snow, the grass and the plants underneath will be able to live on the saved resources. You should also check the soil for the right pH balance. The pH balance of the soil changes because of the shift of substances in the soil during the summer months. To fine-tune the acidity of your soil, you could try using a alternative type of fertilizer. You should add the new fertilizer to your soil before winter appears to allow the soil to effectively absorb it. By the time spring comes along, you will have a soil with a more well-balanced pH level.

5. Also Prepare Your Implements

Preparing your yard or garden for the winter months does not end on taking care of your plants and soil. You also need to take care of the tools that you use for yard work. You should pay particular attention to your lawn mower. Prior to storing it for the winter, make sure that you remove gas and oil from it. You are only going to waste gas and oil by leaving them to sit in your mower. Storing gas and oil in your mower can also damage it.

By studying at the list above, you may come to conclude that preparing your yard and garden for the cold season entails loads of hard work. The truth is, if you are doing little things daily, then the whole task will not seem challenging. Also, by working on your yard and garden now, you can keep yourself from performing more challenging work when spring comes.