It’s wintertime – the chilly temperatures have really set in over the last few days as the cloud cover departed, meaning it’s clear skies and cool days ahead. It also means it’s only three months until spring, so there’s plenty to take care of in the garden to prepare.
This is a great time for a mini-renovation, a chance to clean up, prune, assess and make changes so your garden gets the most out of spring. Outhouse is helping our clients with consultation and training, conducting site inventories to review existing plantings, advising on plant health and maintenance, and providing guidance on how to prune feature trees, keeping on top of the weeds and more.
- Once the leaves fall, it’s time to think about whether your deciduous trees need a prune. Many old-world feature trees benefit from a maintenance prune in the winter months, but it can be hard to get the balance right – it takes a trained eye to see the overall shape best suited for the tree, and to know what to take off without impacting on flowers. This job can be done any time from June through to August or into September.
- With the slowdown in growth, it can also be a great opportunity to review any climbing plants you are trying to train onto trellises or similar. Take a look at their branching and structure – this is your chance to tie things back, remove stems that are heading in unwanted directions, and generally make sense of the shape of the plant before it starts its new growth in spring.
- If you have the space, collect the fallen leaves and compost them! Many of our home composts are too full of ‘green’ or wet waste, like kitchen scraps. Successful composts maintain a balance between green and brown – usually about two or three parts of brown to every part of green. Dried up old leaf litter is a great source of brown for the compost in winter, and at the other end of the process is a beautiful rich compost to feed your soil. Alternatively, leaves can be composted by themselves – just layer them in an old bin or garbage bag with some ventilation holes. The end result is called leaf mould, a carbon-rich alternative to traditional compost.
OUTHOUSE offers in-person consultations with qualified horticulturalists to help you get the most value out of your landscape. We can provide verbal advice, planting plans or a full landscape design. Get in touch with us to discuss your needs.
View past tips for June here!
