1. Now is the ideal time to tidy up the garden ready for the following spring. Rake up leaves that have fallen onto lawns and paths and bag them up into large bin liners ready for making leaf mold. Before you tie up the bags give inside a quick water and pierce small holes into the sides.
2.Cut back and clear away any unwanted remains of old vegetables and fruiting crops. Then, add all the material you’ve gathered to your compost heap for use for next year. If you have any left over that has nicely rotted down, spread it over any cleared soil, forking it into the surface. If you have clay soil and you’ve caught it while it’s still dry, consider adding clay breaker as an improver.
3. Water plants sparingly during the winter months, as they can easily become waterlogged and prone to rotting. Check plants weekly and only water if their compost has almost completely dried out.
4. Removing pumps and filters from ponds and water features will help prevent them from being damaged by freezing water during the winter. Keep ponds covered with a fine netting to prevent fallen leaves blowing in which can later foul the water.
5. If the weather turns for the worse, use pond heaters to help keep your pond from completely freezing over as this can be fatal to you fish and other pond life. If you don’t have a heater then one of the best methods you can employ is to hold a pan of hot or boiling water over the ice. This will enable heat from the pan to defrost a small area allowing waste gases to escape. Do not crack the ice as the percussive waves can damage fish and other forms of wildlife in the pond.
6. Feed badgers and hedgehogs with proprietary feeds, or with tinned dog food (not bread and milk).
7. Fill the bird bath regularly with fresh water, and keep it clean and free of ice.
8. Create over-wintering sites suitable for a range of insects, reptiles, amphibians and mammals. Small piles of wood that are allowed to rot naturally are ideal for this and can become a haven for native wildlife. As it rots down simply add more wood. For more information click onto:
The Importance of Wood Piles to Native Wildlife
9. Apply fatty acid-based winter washes to dormant fruit trees, to control over-wintering pest problems, such as aphids, and other scale insects. You will need to access all the nooks and crannies where they hide, otherwise if you have a wild winter, your fruit tree will be rife with sap thieves (aphids) in the following spring and your crops will be stunted.
9. Apply fatty acid-based winter washes to dormant fruit trees, to control over-wintering pest problems, such as aphids, and other scale insects. You will need to access all the nooks and crannies where they hide, otherwise if you have a wild winter, your fruit tree will be rife with sap thieves (aphids) in the following spring and your crops will be stunted.
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