British gardening enthusiasts are being urged to complete a vital winter task before the end of January to ensure their gardens thrive in the coming year.
Leading landscape gardener and BBC Radio 4 Gardener's Question Time panellist Bunny Guinness has highlighted mulching as the essential job for December and January. This practice is key to protecting plants and significantly improving soil health during the coldest months.
Why Mulching is a Winter Essential
Mulching involves spreading a protective layer of material over the soil's surface. Common materials include bark, homemade compost, straw, leaf mould, or wood chips.
The benefits for your garden are substantial. Mulch helps retain crucial soil moisture, suppresses the growth of weeds, and regulates soil temperature. It also acts as an insulating blanket for plant roots against severe frosts.
As organic mulches gradually decompose, they release valuable nutrients back into the earth, naturally enriching it. Bunny Guinness describes this as one of the most important tasks to undertake in the winter gardening calendar.
Bunny Guinness's Personal Mulching Strategy
In her column for the Daily Telegraph, reported by the Express, Bunny shared her own approach this season. "Mulching is a key job at this time of year," she stated.
"This year, I have plenty of top soil to use, taken from an old patch of lawn. I will top up my raised vegetable beds with it to increase the mineral content."
She explained that after four decades of using various organic mulches like bark and digestate, she is focusing on balancing the soil's composition.
For her decorative flower beds, Bunny applies a generous 50mm (2-inch) layer of bark mulch. More tender plants, such as dahlias and cannas, receive a deeper 100mm (4-inch) or greater covering to ensure robust protection from harsh frosts.
Other Key Winter Gardening Jobs
Beyond mulching, Bunny Guinness emphasises that winter is still a busy time in the garden. She advises that it is not too late to sow certain vegetables like broad beans and onion sets.
"My vegetable beds are best if kept full of plants," she notes. "It helps stop heavy rain from leaching nutrients, feeds the family, and maintains better soil structure." She starts her beans indoors, planting them out only when they have three or four leaves.
Additional tasks on her winter checklist include:
- Purchasing seeds for the upcoming season.
- Building protective structures for vulnerable plants.
- Repositioning plants to fill empty spaces.
She also offers a final warning to gardeners: delaying bulb planting until January "can be risky" due to uncertain weather conditions.
Bunny Guinness, a six-time gold medal winner at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, combines expert knowledge with practical advice, making her seasonal guidance invaluable for gardeners across the UK aiming for a flourishing garden.
