Home Preparing for Winter: Our Autumnal Garden Tips

Preparing for Winter: Our Autumnal Garden Tips

September has arrived, which means it’s about to get quite a bit colder. While we’re getting out the cosy throws, enjoying hot mugs of tea, and getting the fireplace ready, it’s important not to forget your lovely garden. Even if we’re not spending quite as much time outside as we were in June, caring for a beautiful garden is still a year-long endeavour.

To help you get ready for next spring, we’ve compiled a list of quick tips to help you prepare your garden for the winter, letting it flourish next year.

Don’t Prune Proactively

It might feel counter-intuitive, but it’s often best for wildlife not to prune your garden right away. Dead stems and seed heads can help the insect population, while their seeds can act as handy food for birds to stock up with. You might also be surprised at just how beautiful seed heads can be, bringing a new level of interest to your post-summer garden. If you want to continue a wildlife-friendly vibe, you can also create a log pile at the back of your lawn, giving shelter for other insects and even characterful creatures like frogs.

Get your Spring Bulbs Ready

Spring bulbs are perfect to plant between October and December, just before the coldest months – which makes now the perfect time to be proactive about buying them. You could try daffodils and tulips for a beautiful technicolour spread, Lily of the Valley for a monochrome moon-garden look, or bluebells to carpet scenes with a vibrant, magical colour. Planting early means plenty to look forward to in spring.

Grab Some Cuttings

If you have delicate plants that might not make it through the winter, September is the perfect time to get some cuttings and preserve them. Doing so now lets you work on encouraging root systems to form before the chill sets in, meaning you’ll have plenty of new plants to re-pot come spring. Plus, cuttings make lovely window decorations for any home. Claudia De Yong, an award-winning garden designer has a great guide on how to make your cuttings flourish here.

Bee Kind

September is the best time of year to plant plenty of flowers to help pollinators, as annuals sown in the autumn tend to flower earlier in the following year. Not only that but there are many autumn plants you can prepare to help the bees during the later months. Claudia De Yong, recommends the Helenium ‘Mardi Gras’, Rudbeckia, and Aster among others to help out our pollinating friends. You can find her full list here.

Plant some Evergreens

To ensure your garden isn’t too drab during the winter, we recommend taking a look at some evergreens to brighten up your scenes: the warm soil and cooler air makes for the perfect, ripe conditions to get started. You could plant wintergreen boxwoods for splashes of vibrant foliage, lenten rose for deep, characterful blooms, or winter daphnes for hardy, fragrant flowers.

Enjoy the Process

There may be more options for your garden during the winter than you might think – all it takes is a little elbow grease. While you might need a jumper for those chilly autumnal months, the mental health benefits of garden exercise can be a great way to stave off those seasonal blues.

If you’d like to browse the beautiful gardens available in our homes, you can visit our locations page here. If you’re making the leap from interior décor to exterior garden designs and would like to get started, we also have a handy kick-start guide to get you thinking.