Winter is often associated with bare trees, frosty mornings, and dormant gardens. However, with the right approach, you can keep your garden green and lively throughout the colder months. The Free State is one of the coldest provinces in the country where the nights are severe and many of the plants fight a deadly battle with frost.
Winter frost can be especially damaging to young and delicate plants, causing leaves and stems to turn black and die.
Here are a few tips that will help you to keep you garden looking good during winter:
Protection
Cover your beds with a layer of mulch. Spreading mulch in your garden helps protect the soil from damage caused by wind, cold, frost or heavy rains, and basically serves as a blanket for the roots. Cover frost-sensitive plants, by wrapping them in frost cover, this will protect them during the winter months.
Nutrition
Winter can deplete soil nutrients, leaving your plants starved for essential elements. To improve soil health and provide nutrients for your plants, you can add an organic-based fertiliser to your garden beds, and feed seedlings monthly with this nutrient-rich water-soluble fertiliser.
Watering
During the winter season, soil compaction can occur due to the combination of rain and frost. This can make it challenging for water and nutrients to reach the roots of your plants. To ensure healthy root growth and promote better soil drainage and oxygen flow, consider aerating your soil.
Creating small holes in the soil will allow for better water and air penetration. When watering your plants during winter, it’s best to do so in the early morning. This will help dissolve any frost in the beds and allow the soil to dry out slightly before the cold night sets in.
While your plants don’t need as much water during dormancy as they do in the spring and summer, it’s still important to water them deeply a few times a month. Be sure not to overwater your plants and avoid leaving the ground soggy, as this can lead to root rot and suffocation.
Lawn care
Fertilising your lawn during winter can help keep it healthy and green. That’s why it’s important to give your lawn a boost with a well-balanced lawn fertiliser to keep it looking its best.
Lawns are known to lose their healthy characteristics during winter as they get invaded by moles a lot of the time. These underground fellows are fond of caterpillars, so treating your lawn for caterpillars will reduce the frequency of the moles visiting your garden. Cutting lawns low during winter is also not recommended as this can cause disease.
Now that you have all the tips and tricks you need for gardening in winter, it’s time to put on your gardening gloves and get to work. Don’t let the chilly weather discourage you from taking care of your plants.
