Hose Reels Help for Winter

Search

Gardening poll

Hose Reels Help for Winter

By admin | December 24, 2006

This weekend was cold and frosty, providing a mild rest-bite from the early winter frost we’ve been enduring here in England. A fine day to get outside and do some garden work. The first thing I found was my new retractable hose reel survived the early winter happily coiled in its hose holder casing, whilst my collection of hose reels from yesteryear sat sad and in the garden shed.

Here’s what I recommend you do to clean-up the garden and get ready for the rest of winter:

Remove all plant matter from terracotta and small containers - Cut them into manageable pieces and compost.
Give your hose reels a good clean and pipe some water through to ensure there’s no clogging. If you find there is excess water ensure you pipe this out to avoid freezing and winter damage.
Dump soil from pots that will be stored away.
Prune back the perennials if breakage is already an issue, personally my plants boxes are tough enough that I can leave the stems as they are. The birds like to perch on the branches on mild winter days searching for seeds to munch on.
Soak and scrub all terracotta pots and containers that are too fragile for outdoor storage try using simple hot and soapy water and add a little oxygenated bleach (aka hydrogen peroxide) to shift those hard to reach stains.
Stack and store all the pots in a sheltered location such as a shed, garage, or basement.