Ways To Enjoy Your Garden In Winter
There is something to be said for being out in a garden, working on a cold but sunny January day. Finding ways to enjoy your garden in winter will improve your wellbeing as well as increasing your appreciation of nature and how it works. Gardens make us feel better, stronger therefore more positive about the present and the future.
Through gardening, we can care for our surrounding environment and its wildlife.
Knowing that the way I work, maintain and grow plants for my garden and those of my clients is helping the immediate area in terms of establishing a healthy environment for wildlife is a big motivator for me.
Producing good quality plants that are attractive to wildlife is a part of my job that gives me so much pleasure, luckily it is job that keeps me occupied through the winter months.
Ways To Enjoy Your Garden In Winter
After a very wet, miserable December, it is an absolute joy to have some frosty, bright mornings. The skies are blue and incredibly clear, so clear I can see the moon.
What is there to do in a garden in January? I hear you cry.
Well, I will say that there is always something to do in a garden whatever the time of year.
Gardening Improves Wellbeing
There are beds and borders to tidy up. Paving to clean. Trees and shrubs may need pruning. Perennials need to be cut back, there are roses to prune and weeds always seem to appear regardless of the weather.
How Do You Grow Roses? Secrets To Success
But for me, whatever job I am doing, pottering around in my garden in winter gives me an enormous sense of wellbeing.
To hear the birds singing or to see tiny buds starting to appear on cherry trees. Hellebores, my all time favourite winter flower are doing what they do best. They put on a fantastic show of white, cream, pink and deep red and purple flowers to gladden the heart. Spying the first snowdrops and crocus pushing up through the cold earth is more than enough to put a smile on my face.
You will always find something to make your venture into the garden in winter worth your while.
After a few hours, my cares and woes seem to slip away, leaving me relaxed, hopeful and satisfied with a job well done.
Time to enjoy a warming cuppa with a piece of cake. Which, I think you can agree is one of the best ways to enjoy your garden in winter.
Planning My Future Garden
I have already sown some seeds of cosmos, sweet peas, salvia, scabiosa and nemesia. They are all doing well, so well that they will need to be repotted very soon. Seeing them grow is so inspiring, they give me the motivation to get on and sow other seeds too. I aim to grow all my annuals from seed this year.
I have used the cardboard tubes from toilet rolls for the sweet peas. They are ideal for the long roots and they can be planted directly in the ground or bigger pots without disturbing those delicate roots.
I am also using eco pots for my lettuce and tomatoes, as with the toilet roll centers they will be planted in the ground as they are biodegradable.
Better for the environment and certainly better for my bank balance.
I am getting ready to plant some potatoes this year too, they will have to go in sacks as I don’t have the space in the ground for them. Try some yourself, they are easy to grow. Nothing beats the flavour of homegrown spuds. I have high hopes of enjoying my new potatoes in spring.
Tomatoes, salad leaves, herbs, courgettes are also on my list to grow.
Seed sowing is very therapeutic, it clears my mind and allows me to ignore the world for a while.
For tips on growing plants from seed read How to grow plant seeds, 5 Easy Steps
There are excellent propagators available, my review selects dome of the best ones Electric Heated Propagator review
Harrod Horticultural stock a wide range of propagators at competitive prices.
There will be days during these colder months when perhaps you are unable to do any work in the garden due to adverse weather. This is when I stock up on plants, bulbs or seeds for the coming seasons. Peonies, Dahlia, Gladiolus, Canna, Lilies and many more bulbs that are the summer stalwarts in our borders are available now to order. Crocus have a wonderful selection that will make your garden zing with summer colour, fragrance and style.
Why Gardening Is Good For You
Gardening is so good for us both physically and mentally. The energy that we burn whilst working outdoors helps to keep us warm as our heart rate increases and our core temperature rises. Dress warmly in several layers and you will soon be toasty and comfortable. Sturdy, warm, waterproof boots and thermal gloves are a must when gardening, for me anyway as I can’t work if my fingers or feet are cold.
Working the soil, readying it for planting is a great exercise and I always have a sense of achievement when I have finished preparing it.
Gardening for well-being, Why Gardening is good for your health.
Home Made Compost
I make my compost, again it helps to keep costs down. I use kitchen food waste, household waste such as cardboard and paper and garden waste. This keeps refuse to a bare minimum. The resulting compost is healthy and nutrient-rich.
There is nothing more satisfying for a gardener than being able to use rich, crumbly homemade compost.
How to make compost for the garden.
This article is more about sharing what I am doing this month in my garden but I hope I have given you some inspiration and motivation to get out and find ways to enjoy your garden in winter.
Nature doesn’t stop in winter, plants don’t sleep for long and gardens don’t really go to bed.
There is always a new bulb popping up, or vivid green leaf unfurling, or a robin sitting on the fence singing. There is always a ray of sunshine to delight us.
Please, go out and enjoy these tiny signs of continuing life.
How To Grow And Care For Hellebores
Let me know in the comments box below what you are doing this month in your gardens. I enjoy hearing from you.
Please share with friends, family and on social media.
Thank you
Happy gardening.
