How to landscape your garden for winter

Winter is coming, and it's important to be prepared, inside and out. While many of us switch out those light drapes for thermal curtains, pull out the spare duvets and blankets and clear out the fireplace, there's another part of the house that needs appropriate preparation for the winter: The garden. 

A lot of us tend to neglect the garden during the colder months, and address it again in spring. One way to ease the workload of tending to a garden is by giving your garden or lawn area a great cleanup as the cold sets in, minimising the work you have to do in your spring clean.

With that in mind, here are some DIY garden tips to get you started. 

Weed them out

With higher levels of moisture permeating through the garden, weeds can flourish over autumn and winter. Giving everything a thorough seeing-to with a knapsack sprayer lets you quickly move around the garden attacking pesky weeds, getting the job done in no time at all. Anyone with a mass of foliage that just won't quit might want to try a more extreme option, like a flame thrower. 

While there might be some resurgence, getting on top of these before winter is a good way of reducing overgrowth.

Slice of lime

One treatment for a lawn that can be fantastic ahead of winter is adding some lime powder. It balances out any acidity in your yard, and can provide a level of refreshment to tired or worn down grass - great ahead of the less forgiving temperatures of winter. 

Once that is done, you might want to give your garden a nice trim with a lawn mower. Larger areas, or those on rural properties, might be interested in something more practical for their grass area, like a broad area mower. 

Autumn's a great time to clean up and repair the lawn from any heat damage over summer, so pick up your tools and get cracking! 

Prune and clip

Another great garden activity for autumn is taking clippings from plants and around the garden, which can be used for either new plantings or compost. For invasive branches around the backyard, you might need something like a pole pruning saw, which is particularly handy for hard-to-reach branches.

Cleaning up in autumn saves you time when the sun comes back to stay in the evenings, so make the most of the still-warm nights or weekends and clean up. They're not tasks you have to undertake very often, hiring the right equipment is a fantastic way of getting the job done with minimal hassle.