Five jobs to winter-proof your garden now – including must-have gadget that will save you hundreds of pounds next summer

With acold wintertime nights approaching, astir gardening jobs volition beryllium enactment distant until adjacent spring.

Here are 5 jobs to bash present and done winter to guarantee your extracurricular abstraction looks its champion next year, and wherefore you request to instal a h2o butt - if you haven't got 1 already.

Not lone volition it marque definite your plot thrived they're besides ace budget-friendly too.

1. Get a h2o butt

With the mains h2o proviso to homes present being metered and rainy play approaching, it's the champion clip to get a h2o butt for the garden.

What are the benefits of having a h2o butt?

• Reduces aboveground h2o flood risk
• Provides a caller proviso of rainwater - perfect for topping up ponds and washing the car
• Rainwater has much nutrients truthful your plants and gardens volition emotion it
• Reduces your cleanable h2o depletion during periods of highest summertime demand, lowering your bills.
• Easy to instal - you tin commencement redeeming consecutive away

Did you know? One h2o butt tin clasp up to 200 litres of water, which is the aforesaid arsenic 20 afloat washing up bowls.

And you tin prevention astir 5,000 litres of h2o a twelvemonth by collecting rainwater successful a h2o butt, according to Yorkshire Water.

Otherwise, you could beryllium spending £1.50-£2.50 per hr erstwhile utilizing a hose tube to h2o your plot adjacent summer. Do that doubly a time and you'll beryllium spending hundreds of pounds support your flowers looking their best.

You tin container 1 from B&Q for arsenic small arsenic £26 and your plants volition convey you for it.

Rainwater is besides amended for your plants compared to pat water.

Gardening adept Alan Titchmarsh said connected the Gardeners' World podcast: “The comic happening is, there’s thing astir rain.

"It’s got immoderate benignant of magic constituent and plants ever look to turn much rapidly from rainwater, from h2o that comes retired of the hosepipe.”

2. Collect seeds

Instead of buying marque caller seeds of the aforesaid works you've grown this summer, galore volition supply escaped seeds from the angiosperm heads.

Our Consumer Reporter Laura McGuire points retired that a battalion of seeds tin outgo you £5, oregon “you tin cod them from your summer plants and besides instrumentality cuttings to propagate caller plants".

You should store your seeds successful a cool, adust spot until the close play arrives to works them.

3. Dig up summertime plants

There are immoderate plants that request to beryllium dug up oregon they won't past winter.

Dahlias are a perennial that volition dice successful wintertime if near successful the ground, truthful you request to excavation up the tubers (name fixed to their roots) and store them successful a chill acheronian room.

4. Pests beryllium gone!

While galore plot pests spell distant during the wintertime slugs and snails thrive successful damp conditions truthful you'll privation to instrumentality measures to halt them eating your plants.

Garden adept Robert Pavlis shared a clever slug trap baited with dough, which helium says is adjacent much effectual than beer.

You could besides effort making ail spray – simply tegument and blend a full clove of ail with astir one-and-a-half pints of h2o and past usage a spray vessel for liberally screen your plants.

Snails and slugs hatred the odor of ail truthful it should support them away.

Another gardening adept has shared the 5 bulbs you should works this period - and wherefore you should hold until November to works tulips.

5. Compost

Last but not least, erstwhile you’re tidying up your plot astatine the extremity of summertime don’t hide to compost everything - including immoderate rootlike peelings and different integrated waste.

Ideally, your compost should person a ratio of astir 2 parts brownish woody worldly oregon cardboard to 1 portion greenish leaves.

You tin bargain a compost bin for arsenic small arsenic £20, oregon physique your ain with a fewer aged pallets oregon spare planks.

There’s nary request for precocious woodworking skills – arsenic the compost needs plentifulness of aerial gaps to enactment properly.

Remember, determination are immoderate plants you can't compost.

Invasive species - specified arsenic Japanese Knotweed and Buddleia. These plants tin past composting and re-enter the environment, which could origin ecological imbalances. 

Diseased plants - For example, if your tomatoes unluckily suffered blight, composting them tin dispersed the illness further into your plot erstwhile you redistribute the compost.

Toxic plants - Such arsenic Poison Ivy and Poison Oak, These plants tin beryllium hazardous to grip and process.