Everyone wants to have a beautiful and luscious garden and to enjoy it during warm months, but do they take proper care of it throughout the winter? Winter is quite a challenging time to maintain your yard and to keep it in a good condition due to many factors.
If you want to have vibrant greenery in the spring, there are a couple of things that need to be done earlier. Special attention should be paid to preventing pests and weeds. They can be a serious threat to your garden, not only they can ruin the property, but they also carry diseases. During cold months, pests seek out warm and sheltered areas such as garages, basements but also they can sneak into corners of your garden. What are the most common winter pests and weeds and how to deal with them?
The Most Common Winter Pests
Rodents, racoons and cockroaches are one of the worst enemies to your property. Cold days make all these creatures look for cozy and warm spots. They sleep away in the winter comfortably. Unfortunately, they can cause major injuries to your plants and trees, they can damage turf and irrigation systems, as well. Not only that, but pests can also severely damage the quality of the soil. To fight these little fellows can be quite challenging, so there are a couple of necessary steps you can take.
Inspect the property and seal up the entry points and remove the clutter. These are ideal ways for pests to enter and hide. Also, you should eliminate the standing water and exterminate it regularly. If this sounds too complicated, there are certified lawn services and turf care experts who can help you and resolve everything easily.
Take Advantage of The Cold Weather
Overwintering bugs are hidden under the ground and the best way to get rid of them is to get them out to the surface. When you remove the fallen leaves and tickle the soil surface with a border fork. That will bring the grubs to the surface and you can let the frosty nights do the rest of the work.
Birds Can Help Too
This can be beneficial for your garden, but for birds, too. At this time of the year, it is harder for them to find food, so by slightly stirring and exposing the soil, you will make it easier for birds to find pests. Not only birds, if you have chickens they can be excellent helpers, as well. Besides that you are protecting your garden you are doing a good deed by helping feathery friends find food.
Use a Winter Wash To Get Rid Of Pests
Here’s another useful tool to fight insect pests. The exposed branches of fruit trees and bushes are sprayed with a fish or plant-based liquid called winter wash. The goal is to destroy overwintering pests either directly or by smothering and suffocating them. Try to cover the entire surface of the plants, especially larger ones. For people who do not have time or find this undertaking exhausting, there are always professional Sydney landscapers who will be happy to help.
Remove The Weeds
Weeds should be removed from your plants to allow frost and probing breaks to do their work. Focus on removing seedlings that are annual weeds, as well as keeping up the fight against harmful permanent weeds like bindweed and ground elder. Not only weeds should be removed. Some of them are very constructive like calendula, which should be allowed to offer crucial blossoms to draw beneficial bugs. Plants that attract ladybugs and lacewings such as nettles are also beneficial.
It’s not that hard for those who have time. For others who don’t, there are professional Sydney landscaping services that are easy to book.

Owner/operator of Artview Landscapes, Brian Baker is a talented landscape designer who has been managing, designing and building structured landscapes in Sydney for twenty five years. He has personally built or managed over 800 landscape construction projects ranging in value from $5,000 to $250,000 for residential projects and between $10,000 and one million dollars for commercial projects.