Winter Gardening Jobs

While the flamboyant summer displays are over, the festive season brings its own charm to the garden with an abundance of berries, beautifully coloured bark and magnificent winter flowering heathers, pansies, viola, cyclamen and more. At this time of year there's not much to do outside except decorating the garden with some of these winter garden plants, as well as a few simple seasonal tasks. Keep reading for our top gardening jobs during the winter season.

Protect tender plants with fleece when frost strikes. Make sure to cover delicate plants with a warming fleece.
November offers the last real chance to plant spring flowering bulbs such as daffodils, tulips, crocuses, bluebells and snowdrops.

After the first frost, Dahlia, Canna & Begonia tubers can be lifted from the soil and stored in a cool place over the winter months.
Continue planting out wallflowers, forget-me-nots, cyclamen, polyanthus, primroses, violas, pansies etc. for magnificent spring displays. Make sure to deadhead any existing winter bedding. This will encourage continued flowering.

Plant up containers for a colourful winter show. Good combinations include mini cyclamen and winter flowering heathers under planted with bulbs such as daffodils, snowdrops and crocus.
Shrubs at their best in December to select from include hollies, mahonia, pernettyas, heathers, skimmia rubella.

Trim deciduous hedges such as beech, hornbeam and hawthorn. Make sure not to prune or trim evergreens at this time of year.
Cut down faded perennials then mulch the surrounding soil with garden compost. Leave good stems with seed heads to add winter interest as well as to provide food for wildlife.

Give houseplants extra humidity to combat the drying effects of central heating.
Invest in some new bird feeders and stock up on bird food. Check out our full guide on how to build a birdhouse and care for birds this winter