Would You Like to Enjoy Your Garden In the Cold Months? Here's How to Make It More Livable

We all love the garden in the summer, but it can look miserable and lonely once the cold weather strikes and we no longer feel like getting out there. If you would like to make your outdoor space look as amazing during the cold months as it did in the summer, you might want to be creative and feed the plants, cover the roots, and make them look their best come rain or shine. Below you will find a few tips on how to make the most out of your outdoor scenery when you are curled up on the sofa or how to spend more time in the fresh air despite the colder temperatures outside.

Image via Max Pixel

Take Care of Dry Plants

The first thing you will have to take care of is the dry plants and the trees, bushes. You must remove the dead branches and cut down the different plants to the root, so they can preserve their energy and start blooming as soon as the spring arrives. The dry plants and shrubs will only destroy your garden landscape. Make sure that you get a professional landscape designer who will be able to determine which varieties are perennials, and which need to be removed completely from the flowerbeds.

Cut Back Everything

You will need to prepare your garden for the fall and the winter, too. This means feeding your soil and your grass. Get in touch with ABC Lawn Care to get help with dealing with the patches, removing the dry grass, loosening up the soil, and killing the moss and weed without damaging your lawn. This might also be the right time to deal with your borders and creating a stone structure or a low wall, fence that defines the different separate spaces and flower beds in your garden.

Cover Your Patio

Image via PxHere

In case you enjoyed the summer on your patio, you might wish you had the same space for entertaining your friends or sharing intimate moments. The good news is that you can still enjoy the patio if you create a cover and shelter that will protect you from the elements of the nature. While it might not be pleasant to sit outside on cold winter nights, you can still have your morning coffee and even lunch outside on warm, sunny days,

Create a Heated Shelter

It might also be a good idea to take care of the heating in your patio, or creating a garden shelter made of bamboo or other materials that will keep you warm in the winter. There are several great portable heating solutions that will quickly get you warm in  a small space. You will, however, need to make sure that you are not allowing the heat to escape through the gaps, and take care of the insulation. There are some great contemporary gazebos you can erect for the winter and fold up when the weather turns warm again.

Get a Garden House

In case you would like to enjoy the garden all year round, you might want to get a garden room erected that has loads of glass surface to allow you to see nature around you, but also comes with insulation. You can get various designs of this structure, and some of them come with double glazing and extra insulation on the roof and wall panels, Just imagine escaping into this room for a night away from chores and curling up with a book next to the portable heater, watching the sun set.

Create Holiday Themes

Once the Halloween and Thanksgiving arrive, as well as Christmas, you can start decorating your front and back yards in the adequate themes. The good news is that you will be able to use your garden as a blank canvas, and add light-up decorations that will be a pleasure to look at from the warmth of your home. Make your friends and neighbors envious by creating the best holiday themes possible.

Help the Wildlife

One of the things you can try this fall and winter to engage better with the wildlife is creating shelters for birds and small animals. Look at your local wildlife charity’s website for tips on how to help various small animals create a burrow and survive the winter. You might want to keep your garden safe from predators and keep an eye on the area. You can set up small cameras around the garden, so you can find out which species have chosen to survive the cold weather in your garden. Leave the wines and shrubs untouched, if you would like to create a winter paradise for wildlife.

Plant Berry Bushes

Birds that spend the winter in your garden will appreciate the berries left on the bushes and shrubs. While generally you might want to cut these plants back, you will also want to provide food for the wildlife. If you have a couple of strawberry bushes, a spicebush, or cedar trees, leave the seeds on for the birds to eat during the winter. You can spend a lot of time watching American robins if you leave the leaf litter on the ground, create sheltered alcoves, window ledges.

Bird Feeders

You will also have to take care of the wildlife by providing them with food and water. While it is more than likely that you will attract other species as well as birds, such as squirrels, you can make your feeder less accessible for unwanted animals, Design a bird feeder that has a very small entrance or has a grille, so it can be only accessed by small beaks. You might also want to provide a water fountain that provides animals with fresh drinking water when most of the other sources are frozen during the cold winter months.

Plant Seedheads

Image via Geograph

To support small mammals living on the ground level, you might want to plant a few seedheads that will provide both food and protection for these species. You might want to plant these in the spring so they can grow into large bushes and provide cover and shelter for animals. You will not only provide a hiding place from predators and birds of prey, but also nutritious food and a new living environment that is insulated and suitable for nesting.

Trim Your Conifers

In case you would like to create an inviting and beautiful home exterior in the winter, you might want to shape your conifers in different ways. You can create a bear, a spiral, a candy cane, or any animal you want. Emphasize the outline of your creation at night by installing a solar string light and turn your front yard into a winter wonderland, There are plenty of designs available for solar string lights and decorative lanterns that will light up your exterior and make your visitors smile, too.

Decorate Your Trees

Image via PxHere

Christmas and the New Year should not end in the house. In fact, you can decorate your trees from the time the nights are getting longer and change the theme every week. You can use string lights and solar lamps that don’t require any wiring, and spot lights as well to highlight the best and most creative designs.

If you would like to make the most out of your outdoor space during the cold months, you have several options. Spend the nights and mornings bird watching, look after the wildlife in your garden, decorate your shrubs and your trees, and create winter themes to impress your visitors and your neighbors.