Winter Garden Care For The Colder Months
Now that winter is here, it is easy to assume that your gardening duties are done for the year. With the days growing shorter and the weather turning brisk, the temptation to retreat indoors and leave the garden to its own devices is strong.
However, at SilvaTree, our gardening expert team believes that winter is not a time to neglect your outdoor space, but rather a crucial season for preparation and protection. Think of it as the quiet shift; the work you put in now sets the foundation for a spectacular revival when spring arrives.
In this guide, our expert team shares essential advice on how to protect your landscape during the colder months, ensuring your trees, plants, and paving are ready to flourish when the sun returns.
Why Winter Garden Care Matters
It is a common misconception that gardens go completely dormant during winter. While many plants enter dormancy, the biological processes and the wear and tear of the elements continue.
Neglecting your outdoor space now can lead to costly repairs or plant replacements later. Implementing winter garden care, such as mulching and preparing plants for low temperatures, can prevent damage and ensure your garden remains healthy throughout the winter.
Here is why keeping up with maintenance is essential for your property:
- Protecting Your Investment: You have invested time, emotion, and budget into creating your dream garden. Winter garden care protects that investment. Extreme cold and wet conditions can damage expensive hardscaping and kill delicate plants if they aren’t properly safeguarded. To understand what kind of investment you make in your garden, see our post How Much Does Landscaping Cost In Kent?
- Saving Time and Effort in Spring: There is nothing worse than the sun finally coming out in spring, only to be met with a mountain of remedial work. By ticking off tasks like pruning and mulching now, you reduce the spring workload, leaving you free to enjoy your garden rather than just working in it.
- Supporting Wildlife: Your garden is a haven for local wildlife. By maintaining food sources and habitats during the winter, you support biodiversity when birds and beneficial insects need it most.
- Identifying Structural Issues: Without the camouflage of heavy summer foliage, winter is the perfect time to spot structural issues in trees or damage to fences before winter storms make them worse.
Essential Winter Garden Care: Top Tasks To Do Now
Now that you understand the benefits of winter garden care, it is time to begin taking care of your landscape. There are various ways you can support your garden throughout this season, such as:
Frost Protection: Shielding Your Plants and Soil
Frost is one of the biggest threats to a healthy garden. The freeze-thaw cycle can damage plant cells and disrupt soil structure. However, with a few proactive steps, you can insulate your garden against the chill:
- Wrap Up Warm: For delicate shrubs and plants that cannot be moved indoors, use horticultural fleece or hessian wrap. This provides a vital layer of insulation while allowing the plant to breathe. Be sure to protect the base of the plant as well; covering the root zone is just as important as covering the foliage.
- Mulching is Key: We cannot overstate the importance of mulching. Applying a thick layer (about 5-7cm) of organic matter, such as compost, bark chippings, composted bark, wood chips, or leaf mould, around the base of your plants acts as a blanket. It regulates soil temperature, retains moisture, and helps suppress weeds. Mulching with materials like composted bark and wood chips also provides excellent frost protection and weed suppression. As it breaks down, it also improves soil health, giving your plants a nutrient boost for the next growing season.
- Container Care: Pots and containers are particularly vulnerable to frost because the cold attacks the roots from all sides. Raise your pots off the ground using “pot feet” or bricks to improve drainage and prevent waterlogging, which can cause pots to crack when it freezes. If possible, move tender potted plants into a greenhouse or a sheltered corner of the garden near the house wall for shared warmth. Tender plants should be moved indoors or protected to safeguard them from frost and harsh winter conditions.
Hardscaping Care: Patios, Driveways, and Decking
Your plants aren’t the only things that need attention this season. Winter can be tough on the structural elements of your garden.
At Silva Tree, we specialise in installing beautiful paving, driveways, and decking, and we want to help you keep them looking pristine. To determine whether we are the right landscaping company for you, see our post How to Choose the Right Landscaping Company Near Me: Top Questions To Ask Before Hiring.
With our expertise, we know how to take care of hardscaped areas throughout the seasons, with winter garden care such as:
- Clear the Debris: Wet leaves left on paving or decking can become a serious slip hazard and may cause staining or rot. Make it a habit during winter garden care to sweep your hard surfaces regularly. This simple task keeps your garden looking tidy and prevents the buildup of moss and algae, which thrive in damp, dark conditions.
- Inspect for Damage: Water that gets into cracks in paving or brickwork can expand when it freezes, making small cracks much larger. Take a walk around your property and inspect your patio and driveway. If you spot loose pointing or cracks, it is better to address them now before the harsh weather exacerbates the problem.
- Decking Maintenance: Timber decking can become incredibly slippery in winter, and therefore needs specialised care throughout the season. Ensure it is free of debris and consider applying a seasonal treatment if you haven’t already. If you are tired of the annual maintenance, winter is a great time to talk to us about upgrading to composite decking or Millboard, which offers the look of wood without the rot or slip risks. See our post Designing an Autumn-Friendly Garden with Millboard Decking to learn more.
Tree and Shrub Winter Garden Care: The Perfect Time to Prune
Winter is actually one of the best times for arboriculture and pruning, particularly for deciduous trees, shrubs, and other woody plants.
When trees are dormant, which means they are without leaves, it is much easier to see their structure. This visibility allows for more precise formative pruning, ensuring the tree maintains a healthy, aesthetically pleasing shape. Furthermore, pruning during dormancy places less stress on the tree and reduces the risk of transmitting diseases that are active in warmer months. Late winter is the best time to prune apple trees, as well as other fruit trees, to promote healthy growth and fruit production.
Winter storms can bring down weak or damaged branches, posing a risk to your home, car, or family. As well as pruning, a professional assessment of the large trees on your property is a wise safety precaution.
If you are doing some light pruning yourself during your winter garden care, focus on branches that are dead, diseased or damaged. This improves airflow and allows the plant to focus its energy on healthy growth in the spring.
Lawn Care: Keeping the Green
While your lawn won’t be growing much this season, it still needs protection to ensure it doesn’t turn into a mud bath by March:
- Keep Off the Grass: When the lawn is frozen or heavily waterlogged, try to avoid walking on it. Foot traffic on frozen grass can break the leaf blades, leaving black footprints that take months to heal. If the ground is saturated, walking on it compacts the soil, squeezing out the oxygen that the roots need to survive.
- Aeration: If your lawn is prone to waterlogging, aeration is your best friend. Using a garden fork or a hollow-tine aerator to poke holes in the lawn allows water to drain away from the surface and lets air reach the roots.
- Clear Leaves: Just like on your patio, leaves left on the lawn block sunlight and trap moisture, encouraging fungal diseases and moss growth. Throughout your winter garden, care, rake them up and add them to your compost heap.
Supporting Biodiversity in the Cold: Winter Garden Care For Wildlife
A healthy garden supports life, and there are some things you can do within your winter garden care to protect wildlife like birds, insects and hedgehogs:
- Leave a Little Mess: While we advocate for a tidy garden, leaving a small corner a little “wild” can be a lifesaver for animals. A pile of logs or leaves can provide a hibernation spot for hedgehogs and beneficial insects.
- Feed the Birds: Natural food sources are scarce in winter. Keeping bird feeders topped up with high-energy seeds and fat balls will attract a flurry of activity to your garden. Don’t forget a fresh water source; ensure bird baths aren’t frozen over so birds can drink and bathe.
- Seedheads for Structure and Food: When tidying your borders, consider leaving the seedheads on plants like Sedum, Echinacea, and ornamental grasses. Not only do they look stunning when frosted over, adding architectural interest to a flat winter landscape, but they also provide valuable seeds for foraging birds. Leaving dry leaves and seedheads on herbaceous perennials also offers shelter and food for insects and small mammals during winter. To learn more about wildlife planting, see our post Create A Wildlife Haven In Your Garden With Pollinator-Friendly Plants.
Planning Ahead For Spring: Use Winter Wisely
Perhaps the most exciting part of winter garden care is that it gives you the headspace to plan. If you looked at your garden this past summer and felt it wasn’t quite working for you, now is the time to act.
For inspiration regarding your new year of garden design, see our post Top Garden Design Trends for 2025–2026: What’s New & What’s Here to Stay.
- Review and Reflect: Look out your window. What do you see? Winter exposes the bones of your garden, and if the view is uninspiring, it might be time to consider a new design structure.
- Book a Consultation Early: Spring is the busiest time for landscaping. By starting the design conversation with our garden designers in winter, you beat the rush. We can complete the surveys, design work, and planning permissions while the weather is bad, ensuring we are ready to break ground as soon as conditions allow. We offer a comprehensive landscaping service, as we explain in our post The Complete Guide to Garden Design in London: Climate, Styles, Costs, and Planning.
Conclusion
Winter doesn’t have to be a dreary time for your outdoor space. With the right care and attention, it can remain a place of beauty and structural elegance. By tackling winter garden care tasks like aeration, pruning, and frost protection now, you aren’t just maintaining a garden; you are preparing a stage for life to return in the spring.
At SilvaTree, we understand that life is busy. If the thought of winter pruning or pressure washing the patio in the cold doesn’t appeal to you, we are here to help. Our team offers comprehensive landscaping services across London and the Home Counties, ensuring your garden gets the professional care it deserves, whatever the weather.
Contact Us Today
Ready to winter-proof your garden or start planning your spring renovation? Contact us today to request a consultation with our design team.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it safe to plant trees or shrubs in winter?
Yes, absolutely. As long as the ground isn’t frozen solid or waterlogged, winter is actually a fantastic time to plant bare-root trees and shrubs. Because the plants are dormant, transplanting them now causes less shock; they can settle their roots quietly before the demands of spring growth begin.
How do I stop my patio from going green and slippery in winter?
The green film is usually algae or moss, caused by damp, shaded conditions. Regular sweeping helps, but for a long-term solution, we recommend a pressure wash and treatment. Sealing your paving can also be beneficial, as it creates a barrier against moisture and makes future cleaning much easier.
When should I start planning my garden redesign?
Ideally, you should start now. Good garden design takes time. By starting the process in winter, you have ample time to perfect the design, choose materials, and schedule the build. This ensures your new garden is finished and ready to enjoy by the time the warm weather arrives, rather than spending your summer in a construction site.
