Winter gardening tips can help you make the most of the cooler months while preparing your garden for a productive spring season. From planting and pruning to lawn care and garden maintenance, winter is the perfect time to tackle jobs that set the foundation for healthy growth and colourful displays in the months ahead.
Essential winter gardening tips for late winter
- Start a new garden bed – The cooler weather gives plants a gentle start and allows then to semi- establish before spring and the heat of summer.
- Sowing wildflower or meadow mixes – In late winter for spring blooms. For those in cool climates why not include something different like salsify, typically grown for its edible roots, but it also has the most beautiful purple flowers too?
- Late winter planning sowing seed of spring crops – such as tomatoes, capsicums, cucumbers, pumpkins. Start seeds indoors in late winter.
- Late winter prune – Hibiscus and bougainvillea. Just make sure to fertilise after pruning.
- Fertilise citrus late august – See citrus care article
- Divide clumping perennials – such as gingers, heliconia’s, daylilies in late winter. Pot up to giveaway or replant elsewhere in the garden.
- Prune – Roses, deciduous fruit trees (peach, nectarine, plum, apple, pear), grapes. hibiscus and bougainvillea in late winter.
- Bindi in lawns – The ideal time for treatment is during winter, when the weed is actively growing but before it produces flowers and spikey seeds. Use a selective broadleaf lawn herbicide.
- Garden tool maintenance – Clean and sharpen tools ready for spring. Give your garden shed a good sorting out and organising too.
- Sorting out the seed box – Now’s the time to sort out your packet of seeds. Whatever is out of date don’t throw it away create your own seed surprise mixes of flowers & sow.
By tackling these winter gardening tips now, you’ll give your garden the best chance to thrive when the weather warms. A little preparation during the cooler months can lead to healthier plants, better harvests and a more productive garden throughout spring and summer.
