6 minute read
Getting your garden ready for Christmas is a priority, but how are you supposed to do it? This guide is here to help. We provide tips whether you’re facing a frosty winter or even if you live in an area with mild weather. You’ll get some practical advice on winter preparation and combining it with joyful decorations for real festive cheer.
Prepare your garden for wildlife and birds
The Christmas period can be a challenging time for wildlife in your garden, particularly small birds and mammals. It’s often hard for them to find enough calories to stay warm during the colder weather, and a lot of them die.
However, you can prevent this by providing them with bird-friendly ornaments and feeders, including seed-covered ones. Make sure you also add plenty of fat balls to your outdoor areas so they can nibble on them throughout the day to get enough calories when natural foods aren’t available.
If you want to make life even easier for them, then you could add hot water to frozen bird ponds. If you notice they freeze over during the night, birds can then get fresh water more easily. And they can preen their wings.
Add something fun
You might also want to look at adding something fun to your garden, like snowmen, reindeer, or oversized sugar canes. These simple, playful elements can get you in the mood for the festive season and make it more enjoyable whenever you go outside. It also complements snow beautifully, if you get a frosting over the holiday period.
Outlets like Mid Ulster Garden Furniture offer multiple Christmas options. Make sure you check what’s available in your area.
Decorate your pathways and fencing
Another idea which is very popular around this time of year is to decorate your pathways and fencing. You can add things like candy cane stakes or luminous lighting in Christmas colours. You could also add garlands to fences or put them on the sides of arbours. Ultimately, any Christmas-related imagery should work. Then, once you’ve bought the decorations you need, you can store them and use them in future years.
Fairy lights are one of the best ways to add festive cheer to your outdoor areas throughout the entire year. You don’t even have to put them away in the spring. Dancing lights are more popular during the winter months, but you can change their routine so that they are continuously on if you want to leave them outside later on.
Add mulch beds
Adding mulch beds is another great way to prepare your garden for the Christmas period. Mulch is highly protective and can insulate roots from deep frosts, it can also retain moisture in the soil during the winter months and make your garden look more polished and less prone to weeds.
Mulch is particularly helpful if you want to host people outside during the winter months or you want to go outside for fireworks. It makes the whole garden look neat and tidy, so you don’t have to spend so many hours removing plants. It also cuts down on the use of potentially dangerous chemicals like herbicides.
Add winter containers
During the winter, your garden can look like it’s lacking color, especially if you live in a northern area. That’s why many gardeners like to add winter containers to their gardens. These can add pops of red, green, blue, orange, and purple without the need for flowering plants. Plus, you can use them for regular conifers or evergreen bushes. If you can match the colors of your pot planters to the season, that’s even better. Golds, reds, whites, and greens are popular this time of year.
Set up another outdoor Christmas tree
You might also want to look into setting up another outdoor Christmas tree. Many people restrict themselves to having a single Christmas tree indoors, but there’s no limit to how many you can have on your property. You could decorate an artificial tree indoors and then add a real one outdoors. You could also use one that’s already in the ground on your property and simply decorate it with baubles and lights designed to survive outside.
If that sounds like too much effort, then another option is to simply place garlands on your gates. These are a focal point that will immediately set the tone and Christmas season for your property.
Light up your exteriors
These days, you can really go to town lighting up your exteriors for the festive season. What’s more, many local areas actively encourage you or even turn a blind eye, as long as it’s tastefully done.
The easiest way to do this is to string LED strands or fairy lights around shrubs, fences and trees. You can also add hanging lights to trees. For a more mysterious look, many people like including lights in their awnings or facias under their roof to outline their homes or as decorations in the garden adorned with stars and other festive shapes.
If you really want to go the extra mile, then you could also get light-up reindeer for your garden. These sometimes have animatronic animations that are great if you have kids or if children are passing nearby.
Protect your plants from frost
Finally, when you’re getting your garden ready for Christmas, you’ll want to start with a thorough cleanup to protect your plants from frost. Most gardening professionals recommend starting with weeding and removing dead leaves and any spent plants. These can reduce the likelihood of pests and diseases building up over the winter.
Next, cover your sensitive shrubs and perennials with a frost cloth or burlap. This will provide them with extra insulation against cold winter weather, especially as the season presses on into January.
So there you have it – some of the ways to prepare your garden for the winter season. Christmas can be a challenging time for wildlife outside, but with these recommendations, you can make life easier while also creating a stunning exterior space that celebrates the holidays.
