What do gardeners do in the winter.

[Paranoidandroidmarvin]

I moved into my bungalow last year and have had to start my garden from scratch not knowing what I am doing.
The garden has been transformed and cannot wait till next year to add and grow to it.

My favourite time of the day is the morning where I go out and check on everything and deadhead everything. Then spend ages sitting out there.

I am going to miss it so much when the winter comes. ( who knew this would be a thing )
so to other gardeners on here. What should I be doing during the winter months to my garden. I’m sat here researching my hanging baskets for next year and thinking what to do with my the front of the house which is currently all patio.

what should I be doing , planning. Or am I just going to be flopping around waiting for spring.

Keep deadheading well into autumn (I kept my marigolds till mid January last year doing this - depends on if you get a severe frost, and the drought this year affects everything)

Anything you do let run to see you can collect the seed.

Gather, chop and store leaves for leaf mould.

Pruning and tidying.

Mulch mulch mulch and mulch some more to improve the soil.

Plant bulbs in October (leave tulips till December)

Get a grow lamp for the house and start sowing seeds in January

I do quite a lot of grumping around at not being able to tinker in the garden in winter.

a greenhouse helps tremendously if you have room. As you can plant seeds, look after tender things, sit in it in a cold wind or the rain and plan next year. Even a cold frame if you don’t have room.

I also use the winter on a good day, not if it’s been wet and the soil compacted, to put manure or wood chipping on the borders. Plant spring bulbs. make up winter containers.

sit in the chair by the window and watch the birds feeding.

Buy seeds

I have a cold frame. But the door has warped and now is open to the outside. So not sure it will work. Gutted as it is fairly new.

Well my sister still potters around her and my garden.

She also plans what's she going to do, changes she going to make to her garden, mum's and my garden. What plants she wants, what veg to grow next season.

She has taken over my garden has I have no interest in gardening and have no green thumbs and lot of allergies. And she run out of space in her own.

Apparently she's going to make an area in her garden a sunken garden next year.

Read seed catalogues, amd back issues of gardening magazines!

I have a pergola with a polycarbonate roof on (thanks to the early covid and outside mixing only rule) I do go out, wrapped up, and sit with a cuppa looking at my garden and thinking about how I can’t wait for it all to be blooming again. I mentally plan any changes, what I want to add, remove or I just sit with a book until I’m too cold.

Gardeners world do a monthly checklist of things you can do month by month, there are things you can do in Dec for example
www.gardenersworld.com/plants/what-to-plant-december/

Read gardening books! If you only read one can I recommend Dave Goulsons The jungle garden or Gardening how to Save the Planet. This book changed my ideas on gardening and has really refocused my gardening to work along wildlife instead of against it.

Please read it, it is so brilliant.

I do the same morning walk as in summer - but this time looking for the tiniest green signs of new life.

This year's flowers will die down later than you think they will (if deadheaded regularly). Next year's will arrive much sooner than you think they will.

The gap inbetween is spent mulching and looking through seeds to decide what to grow in the coming year.

l absolutely love my garden and still do abit of pottering in the winter. l plan for the next year, l read up alot and get ideas for new border schemes etc. Youtube have alot of interesting videos from other gardeners, l love John Lord, Ben Hamilton Anderson, and many more. l also love looking on Etsy/ Ebay/ Amazon etc for quirky garden decorations, lighting and ornaments. l keep a gardening journal, next year l am hoping to introduce a small frog pond so l will be busy looking into that.

All the hard landscaping & building.

I want to be tending plants and flowers in the sunny months so like to get all the heavy lifting done in the gloomier months.

I do most of the work in the winter. My old neighbours used to ask how we kept it so good as we never seemed to do anything, that's because we used to go out when they were tucked up in front of the fire.

Raking, pruning, turning compost, mulching, cutting back, digging out, planting new trees, making new beds, weeding, turning compost again (do it regularly and you will have good company for the spring), moving captured water into storage butts and containers, putting framework in for the next year's beans and peas, cleaning polytunnel and greenhouses, growing winter crops, harvesting witner crops, planting garlic and overwintering onions in October, collecting and mowing leaves for leaf mould in November, sowing onion seeds in December, sowing chillis in January, sowing tomato seeds in Feb and before you know it, winter is nearly over.

If you just grow one crop all winter, try spinach and harvest every week and you will have lovely fresh greens for your soups and stews. I've already sown my first batch of winter veg, kales, kohl rabi, parsley, spinach, Chinese cabbage, beetroot. I'll be doing another sowing of more when I source more seeds.

It's not just a summer hobby it is year round!

Two things for me.

Firstly, rejoicing in the fact that the lawnmower gets to hibernate (though, TBF, that has t been much of an issue this summer in the SE)

Secondly - I try to get on top of all the stuff in the house that’s taken a backseat due to me making the most of decent weather/daylight.

I have no shame in admitting that I’m a fair weather “Gardner”.

@Furries in the south east as well. We have not mowed the lawn barely at all this summer.
we did nomow for may and then a few times after that. Would be nice to see some actual green grass.

I am a crafter and have my own craft room now we have a room for me to use. So I’m guessing that will take over in the winter and I will be in the garden in the summer.

Look at lots of catalogues and buy bare root plants. They seem to do better than other things in my garden but that is probably because I forget to water things and bareroot stuff goes in early enough in the year that it doesn't matter as much .

@Paranoidandroidmarvin - I wasn’t able to do no mow May. Am not sure what grass was seeded by previous owners, but my back lawn grows stupidly fast and thick - no way I could have left it. I’m surrounded by fields, though, so don’t feel too guilty.

Lucky you having a craft room - the dining table is my craft area!

Mulching, pruning, hard landscaping, cleaning out shed, sorting tools, planting spring bulbs, trimming fruit trees, collecting seeds, moving small shrubs and trees.

Gardeners used to clear everything out in Autumn, but now the tendency is to enjoy the decaying/ seed setting stage, and know that insects and birds also benefit. But through the winter I tidy up the stuff that’s mildewed or really unsightly, then it’s time for the dormant pruning. Mulching is really important . But there isn’t really a time when nothings going on, but you don’t have that gotta get out there before the garden takes over the world feeling.

I'm similar to you, I had zero interest in Gardening until this year (bought my first house last year) and now I unexpectedly find myself wasting time in the garden every day and spending all my money on plants. I've been wondering if I will lose interest over winter, my plan at the moment is to get as many evergreen perennials out, so there is still lots of greenery when all my many tomato plants and sweet peas die off. I have also been filling baskets and wall planters and making hanging pots filled with ferns and herbs, most herbs will survive winter apparently. I also am growing a variety of lettuces from seed indoors to plant out, apparently they can be grown all year round.

In Melbourne, and this winter I've been pruning native trees I've planted to give a more bushy habit and so more privacy. I use this time to re-pot the big plants that are permanently in containers, also divide ones that have outgrown their pots - aspidistras are a case in point, very prolific and need time to adjust, they always sulk for a few months after division. The new divisions are given to friends. I missed dividing the clivia which have run amok, but more leaves than flowers. Next year....

I'm growing three kinds of tomato in my kitchen and will put them in the greenhouse when they get their proper leaves.