When October arrives, most people decide to give their lawns one last cut and pack the gardening tools away until the warmer weather comes around again. There are lots of important things you need to do to get your garden ready for the autumn and winter months, especially as these will help to ensure that your garden is in a much better condition when the spring arrives.
Brilliant Borders
Giving your borders some attention at this time of year is really important. Towards the end of summer, you will start to notice that the flowers have begun to die, which leaves behind decaying leaves and potential weeds that you don’t want to surround your borders. By removing them you can ensure that the soil isn’t contaminated or left to decay too. This will help when the spring arrives and you can reuse the borders and soil to plant new seeds. You will also notice that by clearing away any of the things that were starting to look worse for wear, your garden will look much neater and your borders will be fresh and tidy.
Sharp Shrubs
To prepare your shrubs and trees for the colder weather you need to grab your secateurs and cut back any dead, damaged or decaying branches. The moment you notice a branch isn’t looking as it should, you need to remove it to prevent any diseases spreading and so on. It’s also really useful for keeping the trees and shrubs at a neat length and preventing them from staying overgrown or out of shape.
Fickle Fences
For some reason, fences always seem to break throughout the winter time. Whether it’s the harsh weather that they face from day to day, or they simply haven’t been looked at or maintained since they were first installed, the last thing you want is a fence panel flying to the other end of your garden through a storm, or worse blowing into a window or door. Spend some time going around and checking all fences and gates around your property. Look for any damage that could already be showing on the material, such as split wood, loose screws and even rusting hinges. By fixing these small issues now, your fencing and gates should survive the heavy weather conditions throughout winter and prevent any damage or accidents.
Fancy Furniture
After spending a considerable amount of money on stunning outdoor furniture pieces, that last thing you want is for the bad weather to damage the items and result in them being unusable next year. For the items that are too big to put into storage, cover them with some thick sheets to protect them from the wet weather. For the items that are smaller, you could store these in the garage, loft or shed for the winter and wait until the weather clears up again before you bring them back out into the garden. This will keep them in great condition and prevent you from having to buy anymore when spring comes.
