Strengthened into the winter

There’s a saying in professional sports: “After the season is before the season”. The same holds true for home gardeners. If you gently and attentively prepare your garden for winter in October and November, you are bound to enjoy your plants all the more in the coming season.

First things first: What to do with the leaves?

Even the most beautiful summer and autumn days must draw to a close. This is the time to prepare the garden for winter. It should be done in a way that minimises any impact on the plants and wildlife. Let's start with autumn leaves. It should be removed from sidewalks, patios and stairs where it poses a safety hazard. It should not be left on the lawn either, as it will turn yellow and rot under the damp leaves. Everywhere else it can be left with a clear conscience. An efficient tool for collecting leaves is the leaf rake. This spares little garden helpers such as earthworms, beetles and spiders. Gardeners seeking a more convenient tool can use a mechanical Leaf and Grass Collector. This can be used to gather up the leaves on larger lawns quietly.
Piled up in heaps, the collected leaves between beds or in an unused corner of the garden serve as a shelter for small animals such as ladybugs, toads and hedgehogs. Branches that are left over from pruning also make an important winter shelter when piled up.

Giving the lawn its final trim of the year

Before the first frost announces itself, a last cut of the lawn is due. The cutting height should be between four and five centimeters. If the blades are too high, they can be crushed by the snow, which promotes fungal diseases - too short blades hardly protect the root area from frost. When it comes to mowing, the same rule as with leaf-removal applies: it’s better to use clever solutions, such as battery-powered or electric lawnmowers. For smaller lawns up to 50 square metres in size, a good tool to use is the compact Battey Lawnmower HandyMower 22/18V P4A. For larger lawns of up to 450 square metres, a battery-powered lawnmower such as the PowerMax Li-40/41 is more appropriate. Gardeners who also want to get in some exercise can use a hand-driven cylinder lawnmower. The Gardena Hand Cylinder Lawnmower Classic 400 is an especially quiet lawnmower that is easy to push along. Once the last cut is done, be sure to remove the cut grass from the lawn. This will give the lawn enough light and air, and prevent permanent moisture.

Energy for the short days

If you like a well-maintained lawn, another task that you shouldn’t neglect when preparing your garden for winter is to replenish your lawn’s nutrient levels around mid-October. Organic autumn lawn fertilisers with plenty of potassium and little nitrogen are ideal for this. Please don’t use any pesticides or chemical fertilisers. These are literally poison for the fauna and flora in your garden and pollute the groundwater.

 
Protecting your trees against frost and snow

Most coniferous trees and shrubs cope well with frost and snow. However, heavy snowfall can lead to snapped branches. You should therefore use a broom to free the branches of snow soon after it has fallen and before it has turned into heavy wet snow. In the case of fruit trees, it is quite permissible to leave a few fruits hanging or lying around. They are an important source of food for birds, insects and hedgehogs. If you don't want this, you can put the fallen fruit in the compost or pile it up in an unused corner of the garden. Excess fallen fruit can be conveniently picked up with the Gardena combisystem Fruit Collector.

 
Natural frost protection for your beds

Your beds also require some preparation for the new season. That means getting rid of weeds and diseased plants. This is where 2-in-1 gardening tools come in handy, such as the Gardena combisystem Grubber-Rake. It is not necessary to clear the beds completely. Insects overwinter in the stems of many plants. Sunflowers and cardoons that have blossomed also provide an important source of food for birds. Protection from frost is provided in beds by natural materials, such as fir branches, leaves, compost and straw. Bark mulch is suitable for tree discs, between woody plants, or in shady parts of the garden where funcias and ferns grow. And then there are the truly hardy crop plants that are fairly immune to frost and snow. These include winter cabbages, winter lettuces and leeks. They provide the home gardeners with vitamins even during the colder months.

Once you have successfully prepared your garden for winter, it’s time to sit back with an herbal tea, apple punch or café de olla and relax as you look ahead to the next gardening season.