Preparing Your Garden and Lawn for Winter

It can be a bit of a miserable task gardening in winter. Cold, windy or wet days certainly don’t make for the most enjoyable gardening experience! Maintaining the lawn in blistering cold winds isn't much better either! You can stay on top of your garden and lawn by preparing them for the cooler months ahead by getting necessary jobs done before winter sets in. 

This blog will provide you with garden inspiration for your property, as we’ll give you 8 super handy tips to make sure your garden and lawn are ready for winter. You don’t need to be a landscaper to get these jobs done, as this work can be carried out by gardeners of all experience levels. Before tackling any outdoor jobs, book online and drop into Hirepool and grab all of the lawn and garden equipment you’ll need to make it as quick and easy as possible.

Benefits of carrying out garden and lawn care in cooler months

By preparing your garden and lawns for the coldest months of the year, you’ll ensure they'll be able to handle the cold conditions and will bounce back quicker when spring arrives. Gardening in autumn can also be one of the most pleasant times of the year to do so. It isn’t too cold to be outside, but cool enough that you don’t get too hot and sweaty when doing yard work, and there are also less bug bites to deal with. 

Putting a little effort into your lawns and gardens in autumn will help you avoid tough jobs in spring, such as ridding your lawn and gardens of rot and mould, and having to break up super tough soil. Here are our top tips for ensuring your lawn and gardens are well set up to endure the worst of winter.

Tip1 - Give your lawn one last mow

Wait for a clear, dry day in autumn to give your lawns one last mow before winter. 

Generally, throughout winter, your lawns won’t need to be mown as frequently as warmer times of the year. A very handy tip for mowing your lawn in the winter months, is to slightly increase the height at which you cut. By keeping lawns slightly higher in winter, they’ll still visually look well kept and tidy, but they’ll be much less susceptible to disease and stress.

By mowing throughout winter, you’ll stop your lawns from overgrowing, potentially avoiding yellowing, rotting lawns, which can occur with longer grass as they absorb more sunlight that reaches the base of the lawn.

After your final mow of autumn, it's important to then dethatch it. Thatch is a layer of organic material that sits above the soil, but below the live grass in your lawn. To recognise thatch in your lawn, look for clumps of yellow/brown grass amongst the healthy green grass. Thatch buildup occurs in lawns with poor aeration and drainage, and if it isn’t removed, will choke the live grass, and significantly reduce its growth. 

Using a dethatcher is very similar to a mower, and will remove thatch buildup from your lawn. Simply move back and forth across your lawn as you would when mowing, making sure to remove and empty the catcher regularly.

You can hire all of the gear you need from Hirepool to create a professional lawn at home, including mowers and dethatchers. You can also use our other handy guides for great tips on the best way to cut lawns and edges, and 6 common mistakes to avoid when lawn mowing.=

Tip 2 -Aerate and fertilise your lawn

It’s important to increase the drainage quality of lawns to cope with strong and frequent downpours in winter. This is especially important for very dry, tough soils, as they’ll typically have water pooling on the surface when it rains, which can easily kill your lawn. Excess water build-up is bad news for gardens and lawns, as it results in depleted oxygen in the soils that is essential for all plant life to grow, and also negatively impacts the germination of any grass seeds that have been planted, resulting in less seeds reaching germination, and decreased growth for those that do. This is a common cause of very patchy lawns that have been grown from seed.

You can solve this potential issue by sourcing an aerator to go over your lawns. If your lawn isn’t very large, you can also aerate your lawns manually by using a garden fork or kitchen fork. You can do this by simply digging into your lawn with the fork and giving it a bit of a wiggle when it’s in the ground to open up pores in the soil. You’ll need to do this for your whole lawn. This is a good job for the kids to help with if you want them to get involved too.

Once aerated, you can then fertilise your lawn. Using a balanced NPK fertiliser (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) is important. Nitrogen is responsible for that lush green look, but too much can result in disease. Potassium strengthens grass cells, which provides important protection against stress in winter. 

Using a fertiliser spreader from Hirepool will make this job quick and easy.

Tip 3 - Patch and repair your lawn

If your lawn has any patches that have been worn away from the kids playing in the summer months, or the dog doing its business has resulted in dead spots, now's the time to get these repaired and new grass sown down before heading into winter. Depending on the patch size, it may pay to use a lawn roller to level the soil before sowing grass seed. 

You can easily fertilise sewn, bare patches of lawn by using a liquid fertiliser with a sprayer backpack. Be sure to keep the kids and pets away from the lawn after spraying to give the grass time to repair.

Tip 4 - Clear the garden of dead plants

Now’s the time to clear any dead plants from flower beds or veggie patches before winter. Old plants can harbour disease, pests and fungus, which if left, can spread to any new plants introduced to the soil. By clearing the garden now, growing plants and veggies in winter will be much easier.

Tip 5 - Go hard on weeds and invasive plants

It’s important to rid the soil of any weeds or invasive plants, as they’ll compete with your flowers and crops for water, soil nutrients and sunlight. To give your plants the best chance of flourishing in winter, use a sprayer backpack with a weedkiller to remove any unwanted plants. Once any weeds and invasive plants have died, you should turn the soil over using a rotary hoe, before moving on to planting.

Tip 6 - Plant winter vegetables and plants

With the soil clear of weeds and turned, it can now be replenished with a compost mix and your winter crops can be planted. If you’re growing vegetables in your winter garden, late summer or autumn is the best time to plant them, as they’ll begin growing just before the coldest months set in. Some of the best vegetables to grow in winter include broccoli, cauliflower, leafy greens, celery, broad beans, beetroot and cabbage.

If you’re looking for colorful winter garden ideas, consider planting winter flowering plants like violas, camellias and pansies, as they’ll definitely brighten up your garden during the darkest months of the year. This is also a great time to plant roses. Be sure when you layer your garden with compost, that you also top it with mulch, as this will help the soil retain heat and nutrients.

Tip 7 - Trim the trees

Late summer or early autumn is the perfect time to trim your trees before they drop all of their leaves. This will save you the job of cleaning up mushy leaves from your lawn, driveway, or deck. Taking the time to trim trees now, especially those that may overhang gutters or drains, will save you from nasty clearing jobs in the winter. Be sure to choose a still autumn day for this job to make it as safe as possible.

You can hire all the tools you need for this job from Hirepool, including chainsaws and pruners and hedge trimmers. You can also grab a leaf blower to make tidying up once you're done quick and easy. To save on a trip to the green waste collection, you can use a chipper to convert any branches and leaves into valuable mulch for your winter garden.

Tip 8 - Start scheming and dreaming up a new garden

Winter weather may stop you from being able to build your dream garden, but it can’t stop you from designing one. Although you may be stuck inside, you can use this time to envision the type of garden you want and begin planning. There are always new and exciting garden trends and backyard ideas popping up that can turn any old garden into something spectacular. You can also use this time to set up a budget for your future landscape design.

Prepare for Winter with Hirepool

We have a variety of tools and equipment to help you prepare your garden and lawn for the cooler months. Easily book your gear online now or get in touch with your local branch to talk about selecting the right gear to achieve a winterproof garden