Smartening up your garden for winter

I’m pretty sure I say the same thing every year, but I really can’t believe it’s September already! It feels only yesterday that the summer holidays began and now, well, now they’re almost over, and for many people they’re already over.

Children are returning to school and many others like our twins will be starting their school life. I feel so sad at how fast they’re growing up and I wonder what I’m going to do with myself when the girls are in school. Of course I work two days a week, but for the remaining three days of the week, I’ll probably spend it working on my blog.

That is after I’ve done a number of jobs in and around our home. We’re very luck that we have a lovely garden for our children to enjoy, but it does take quite a bit of a maintenance all year round. We do have a gardener who pops around once a fortnight to do some weeding and to mow the lawns, as we simply don’t have time to do it ourselves, but as I said above when the girls are in school, I’ll have a bit more free time.

Our garden has a lovely patio area which is great for barbecues, and we also have a lawn which has two borders full of plants in. Hanging over the back fence are a number of tall trees which is great for providing some much needed shade in the summer, but during the colder months, they often leave the lower end of the garden covered in leaves.

The trees also block out our view and also quite a bit of light which in the dark winter months isn’t great. That’s why services such as crown lifting is something I’ve been looking into over the past few weeks.

Crown lifting simply means to remove the lower branches of a tree. There are a number of reasons why crown lifting is beneficial. As mentioned above it can let in more light and allow a more desirable view, but it’s also carried out to keep tree branches away from traffic, buildings and pedestrians.

Other ways in which we like to smarten up the garden for winter is to cut back plants that may have overgrown a bit. We also dig up any weeds and put some weed killer down.

Another thing we do which can often be overlooked is to move the children’s outdoor toys off the grass. Things such as their seesaw, slide and sandpit. If left on the grass it can damage it and stop it from growing properly.

Hopefully by taking these steps our garden will easy to manage over the winter months.