Winter can be a challenging time for birds, as food and water sources become scarce and the weather turns colder. However, with a little bit of preparation, you can help ensure that the feathered friends in your garden make it through the winter months in good health.
Gardening Tips
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As we enter the new year, many gardeners will be eager to get started on a new season of gardening, and thinking about what tasks they can start tackling in their gardens. Here are our suggestions for five ways you can get stuck into your garden in January.
National Tree Week starts this month, encouraging gardeners to plant a tree and keep our country lush and fruitful. November is the perfect time of year to plant fruit trees, giving them time to get bedded in for the Winter followed by a full Spring season of growth. If you’ve never planted a fruit tree before, why not join the effort this year and learn that no fruit tastes better than the ones you’ve grown yourself. Here are our top picks to get you started.
Regularly cutting our lawns may improve kerb appeal, but it has already proven to have serious consequences for bees and pollinators. Whilst we offer and promote Perfect for Pollinator plants to fill the gaps in your borders and to nourish the pollinating wildlife with nectar and pollen, stress-free no-mow lawns are crying out to be utilised. Have an open mind for the beauty and uniqueness they can bring, they don’t have to be unsightly and unkempt and we promise your neighbours won’t be wanting to complain.
For those of us who do the daily 9 to 5 grind, we’ll be spending most of our time in the garden in the evenings after work. There are some beautiful and delicate flowers that come to life in the evenings, releasing their fragrances as well as having their blooms enhanced by the glow of the moon.
Forget about neat rows and perfect plots, try ornamental vegetable gardening this year to add colour and interest to your garden. This can really make cooking for friends, family and kids a fun and environmentally friendly outdoor activity – ingredients picked fresh from the garden to the kitchen or barbecue!
Undesirable weather has kept us out of our gardens for most of February, but now Spring is here we’re hoping sunnier skies are on the horizon. If you want your garden to look perfect for the upcoming months, getting your seeds planted now is a must for seasonal blooms. Now that the ground has warmed up a little, we’ll look at the best things to get planted outside this month, but remember, a lot of plants and cuttings will need some time in the greenhouse or propagator to ensure they don’t suffer from any cold snaps we may still experience.
Our Star Buys this month are all about keeping the birds well fed, but now is the time to begin thinking about preparing to keep yourself fed through Summer. Although the ground will be too hard to do much with, it is still the best time to get planting in your greenhouse.
How long do you plan in advance for Christmas? Do you pull out the same, slightly beaten artificial tree from the attic or does the excitement of a real, traditional Christmas tree really cement the feeling that the festive season is here?
With the trend in recyclables and eradication of unnecessary plastics in full force, a fresh tree is the more environmentally friendly option. Even the Woodland Trust estimate that a non-recyclable PVC tree would take 20 years of use to fully cover the costs of the pollution created through their production, not to mention the transportation and discarding it when you’re ready for an upgrade!
October brings along it’s challenges with wet, stormy weather, but don’t worry – a storm battered garden at this time of year can be quickly remedied! It’s the perfect time for pruning, if you haven’t begun already, as this will minimise damage caused by any bad weather we may experience over the coming months.