Christmas Gardening – winterising

Much of our suburban landscape is trees and shrubs which means that the autumn and winter give you opportunities to assess and alter your garden for the better – for example, this is the time to get a tree surgeon to examine any mature trees that seem to have got out of hand over the summer because once the leaves are off, all is revealed, including any dying or diseased wood that should be removed.

Another key point to winterising is to give some thought to your exposed evergreen plants . While most of them are hardy, that’s why we grow them, wind can dehydrate certain more verdant types and send them into permanent dormancy, protecting them during the worst of the winter storms can stop this happening hammer in three or four stakes around the plant and then wrap them in sacking, polythene or even bubble-warp to make a windscreen. Not pretty but very effective,

Many perennials should be cut back to about six or eight inches above the ground – but remember that not only do some perennials actually look attractive during the winter, they provide food for birds. If you’re not sure – leave half a clump and see if you like the way they appear with frost on them – grasses and plants with strong seed heads are best left, for example: Rudbeckia (Black-Eyed Susan), Echinacea, Achillea, and Buddleia very elegant in snow and frost and provide food for birds during the winter. Evergreen and alpine perennials such as Artemisia, Dianthus, Heliantheum, and Heuchera shouldn’t be cut back either Many perennials, however, look tired and messy during the cold weather months, so you’ll want to trim them to keep your garden looking tidy and to avoid extra work in the spring. Prime examples of perennials to cut back are Alchemilla, Campanula, Coreopsis, Delphinium, Geranium and your Hostas if they haven’t already disappeared.

Christmas gardening winterising photograph by mike@bensalem, used under a creative commons attribution licence