Winter gardening advice with Tele columnist George Irvine

With some really icy weather seemingly on the horizon, and snow predicted for some areas, it’s also likely that we’ll see some chaos on the roads as we go about our journeys to and from work, schools and daily life.

Motorists should give themselves plenty of time for their journeys and check that their vehicles are in a fit state for winter driving, with their anti-freeze topped up to the recommended level required by the manufacturers and tyres at the correct pressure.

Windscreens need to be kept clean; a drop or two or methylated spirit helps stop the water freezing and keeps the glass clean.  If there is deep snow forecast, make sure you have a shovel in the boot in case you have to need to dig your car out. Keep bags of rock salt and use this to scatter some on garden paths, patios and sloping stairways.

Winter brings with it a whole host of hazards for gardeners. (Image: Nicky Pe/Pixabay.com) When grass is covered in frost, take care to make sure you do not walk over the lawn; otherwise the grass will get damaged, and the damage will take quite some time to put right.

Grass can become quite a slip hazard if it is covered in moss – the result of poor drainage and acid soil or compost. Should you have bulbs planted in your lawn, then you’ll need to be ultra careful when walking over the lawn to be sure that you don’t trample over the tips of the bulbs as they pop through the grass.

Compost bins are so useful

Having a compost bin or a compost heap is an ideal way to deal with old plants. Compost is a really useful material to have for use in the garden, and it lasts for a long time too.

Grass cuttings and hedge trimmings can be source material, but so can old newspaper, cardboard and straw. Old egg boxes can also be put into your compost heap, but don’t be tempted to tear them up; leave them as they are and they will trap air, which will help with the decomposition of the other materials you’ve added.

Compost bins and their contents can be a valuable addition to any garden. (Image: Craig Thomas/Unsplash.com) Keep your compost bin on a solid base, such as concrete slabs if you have them, and don’t be tempted to add any food residues, as that will attract rats and other vermin.

The compost which results makes an ideal mulch which can be used to keep weeds at bay, and it will also assist in adding organic matter to poor quality solid clay soil – as well as breaking up the clay, it’s a much better way of suppressing weeds than using chemicals.

How you can deter foxes

Some gardeners have a habit of planting quite deeply to protect their bulbs. While some species of plant thrive on being treated like this, it can sometimes result in other problems.

One is that planting bulbs too deeply can attract foxes to your garden. Town foxes are quite bold, compared with their country cousins, and when they find a suitable regular night-time haunt the damage they cause can be quite significant – quite apart from using your garden as a toilet, which, it hardly needs to be said, is not a healthy habit, for you, your family or your garden.

Foxes can make themselves at home in your garden over winter if you're not careful. (Image: Michael Dick) It’s always worth doing what you can to deter foxes; whatever you do, don’t leave food lying around your garden which might encourage them to make it a regular night-time haunt.

Moving indoors for winter

Working with your indoor house plants is a great way to keep your gardening skills up to scratch during the winter, and there’s no shortage of tasks to keep you busy.

Some plants might need to be re-potted, while others may need monitored to make sure they’re at the best location to maximise the light and heat available to them.

A common mistake with indoor plants during winter is to give them too much water. Many house plants are killed by over-watering; the best advice I can give you is to water them at a set time every week.

House plants will keep any gardener busy while it's too cold to do much work outside. (Image: Nora Hutton/Pixabay.com) Lift the plant pot, and the heavier it feels, the less likely it is that any water is needed.

Be careful, too, with where you put your plants at night. House plants that are left on a window sill, between the window and the curtain, overnight can be affected by the often significant drops in temperature that occur after we’ve gone to bed and the heating has been switched off.

Winter proofing your garden

Over the next week or two (assuming the cold weather we’ve seen so far this week doesn’t persist, of course!) is the ideal time to take action to winter-proof your garden before the weather comes too cold to work outdoors.

Get all your old summer bedding plants out of the ground, and get the ground ready for spring planting when the temperatures begin to rise after the turn of the year.

Now is the time to winter-proof your garden before temperatures really start to drop in the depths of winter. (Image: Dean Lewis/Unsplash.com) If you are growing plants in large containers, then it is important to keep the container up off the ground. Use pot feet or even just a couple of old bricks to keep the bottom of the container off the ground.

This will prevent the water in the container freezing if the weather becomes really cold; if the water does freeze, the container may crack, especially if it’s made of earthenware or ceramic material.