Getting your home garden ready for winter: Some do's and don'ts
(Reuters) - Raking, sweeping, collecting - every year home gardeners face the same routine. Some look at it as a lot of work, while others love the tidying up at the end of the gardening season, the neatly cutting and trimming of everything and storing equipment away for the new year.
But experts warn that a garden that is too tidy can be counterproductive.
"It neither provides food for animals nor shelter for plants and insects," points outs Isabelle Van Groeningen of the Royal Garden Academy in Berlin. It's a view shared by Verena Jedamczik from the German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (Nabu) and Katrin Wenz from the German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND).
The experts have some basic tips for nature and animal-friendly gardening. They also provide a compromise idea for those gardeners who want things tidy.
Photo by Anton Darius on Unsplash
Clean up less
"The be-all and end-all is not to tidy up the garden too much," says BUND expert Katrin Wenz. "This doesn't mean that everything should simple be left there as is, but that you should build piles of brushwood and small piles of wood in a corner of the garden."
Gardening expert Van Groeningen advises that perennials, for example, should not be cut back immediately at the end of their flowering period or even at the end of the gardening season. The seed pods not only look pretty, but they also provide food for birds. At the same time, the perennials are natural shelters for insects which can spend the winter in them.
Autumn also provides another valuable biowaste - the leaves from the trees and bushes. These can be piled up and become a hibernation haven for insects or hedgehogs. Meanwhile, the leaves can be left atop the flower beds to serve as winter protection. After rotting, they become fertiliser and soil conditioner. However you should remove leaves from your lawn, or otherwise the grass underneath can rot.
No leaf vacuums or leaf blowers
The experts advise against using leaf vacuums or leaf blowers. "Leaf blowers are a disaster for the environment. They destroy the upper layer of the earth and with it very many organisms that try to live there," says Isabelle Van Groeningen.
Apart from the noise, devices with combustion engines emit harmful exhaust gases such as carbon, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide, adds Verena Jedamczik. Also, small animals are literally chopped up when using suction devices.
A compromise for tidy hobby gardeners
For hobby gardeners who prefer a tidy garden, there is a middle way. They can still keep the areas around the house and the garden paths and stairs tidy while leaving the rest as it is, advises Van Groeningen.
Her tip: Rake the leaves from the paths into the beds on the left and right. The layer of leaves provides frost protection for the plants in winter and also attracts blackbirds, for example, which pick pests out of the beds. She notes that leaves also help plant growth in the long term. The leaves gradually decompose and become valuable fertiliser and soil.
"Nature actually has the very best recycling system. It's unbeatable," Van Groeningen says.
(Reporting by Daniel Josling; Editing by Coman Hamilton)
Thumbnail Credit: Photo by Muillu on Unsplash
