Gardening

5 Gardening Tasks To Tackle in the Winter Months

December 7, 2021 /

You might think that after the spring and summer growing season are done, so is our work in the garden. However there are some important gardening tasks that are best done in the colder weather. See below for a few ideas on how to get ahead of your gardening to-do list this spring!

Alison and I have both had gardens in past years and have documented some of our experiences on the blog. See the links below to follow along on our journey!

Backyard Garden Journey

Gardening While Renting

1. Pruning

Many trees and bushes can benefit from pruning, which can serve to remove unproductive, diseased or damaged areas of the plant, or direct growth in a desired direction. Pruning can also help the plant’s productivity and improve health, but is certainly a bit nerve wracking! It is best to prune most plants when they’re dormant in the colder months, however there are some exceptions.

I don’t have a lot of experience with pruning, though am trying to learn to prune my apple trees! Each plant has unique needs and the best approach is to get a good understanding of your plant’s location and mature size, sharp and clean tools, and do some reading to get an understanding of your specific plant. See a good overview here!

2. Splitting Plants

Perennial plants are plants that come back year after year on their own. They continue to grow and so at times need to be split into smaller plants that are then replanted. The benefit of this is that you can fill your garden with new plants that didn’t cost a thing! This is also a task best done for many plants when they’re dormant in colder weather. See the link here for step-by-step instructions.

gardening tasks

3. Preparing Garden Beds

Our garden soil does hard work through the spring and summer and the fall and winter are a great time to amend the soil and add back nutrients that were depleted through the growing season! I’ve noticed that my garden has been less productive the last year or two, so am going to start with spreading compost from our composters. I also have a soil test kit, which, when I use it to test the contents of my soil, should give some indication of any other amendments that might need to be added. See this link for a few ideas to amend your soil!

4. Building and Repairing Infrastructure

Winter is also a great time to do some building gardening tasks!

New Beds

Making new garden beds are hard work, so if you live in a place where the ground isn’t frozen all winter, this might be a good time to make more before the busy growing season starts! If you have been contemplating raised garden beds, it might also be a good time to build those.

Greenhouses or other Garden Structures

My husband and I have been trying to put up our greenhouse for years! And I think this winter might just be the time to do it as in the other months most of our spare time is taken up with garden planting and maintenance. If you have some things on your to-do list like building sheds, benches, water features then winter might be the time to do it!

gardening tasks

5. Add Some Winter-Friendly Plants

Art’s Nursery in Surrey is one of our favourite places to go for plants and for fun seasonal events! Recently the experts at Art’s shared a couple of ideas for winter flowering plants that can be planted as long as your garden isn’t frozen. Check out their Instagram page linked below!

Do you check your gardening tasks off the list in the winter?

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