The end of a garden season

Winter on its way winter now is a perfect time to lay the ground work for summer. A bit of preparation now will make sure we are ready for the early good weather we seem to have each year. A bit of ground work now will mean that spring gardening is much less hard work.

Autumn Weeding

First step is to remove any seed heads. Any weeds left at this time of year will likely be full of next year's weeds we need to remove these seeds and incinerate them or green bin them.

Next are the perennial weeds like the weeds which need to be removed turn over your borders and remove any roots weed roots tend to be white and snap easily where as your flowers are usually bulbs which of course need to be left in.

Don't dig in the wet

Soil structure is important don't dig and walk on wet ground as it will spoil the structure of the soil.

digging over exposes the seeds and roots to the birds and foraging animals chunking the soil up will also reduce weeds and make preparing the soil easier in the spring.

Dig in

It a good time of year to get any raw fertiliser in to the ground if you have access to manure as it will need to rot down.

The compost heap

With lots of garden refuse the compose heap can grow very quickly but with no thought to the layers and mixing the compose it won't be compost in the spring. Layer veg and wet waste with dryer layers to promote the rotting down process.

you will need to turn the compose over once a month though out the winter if you're doing it right there should be enough heat generated to keep it from freezing in the winter.

It also time to top up the leaf pile, leaf mulch is an important gardening component, but it does rot quickly you will probably need a 2 year cycle for leaf mulch but the end product is a worms delight and will greatly help with the organic component of the soil.

Tidy your edges

It time to discourage any grass from marching over your beds by trimming the edges digging a 10cm ditch between the boarder and the grass will encourage the grass to grow where you want it and save time in summer.