As most of my readers will know at the end of the summer we moved from our small gardenless flat into a three bedroom two garden house. The part of the house we were most excited about wasn’t the fact that LA would have her very own bedroom or the fact that the tiny 3’s toys would no longer have to live in the lounge but instead put away out of sight in the bedroom cupboards at the end of each day – no it was the fact that it had gardens not one but two! However, in the midst of unpacking what felt like 1000’s of boxes (most are still in the loft) and getting JR settled at school, the garden somehow got pushed to the back of our minds. Other than mowing the lawns, making sure it was safe for the tiny 3 each morning and tidying their toys away at the end of each day, the garden was left pretty much untouched by us although it was very nicely kept when we moved in.

As the months have drawn on and autumn is slowly turning to winter, I thought that we had lost our chance to do anything with the garden until I found this article on Hi-Tech turfs blog. Now, although there are some things that we’ve left too late like weatherproofing the gate, fencing and sheds – there are still some which we can do. This week I shall be fertilizing and aerating the lawn and moving the playhouse down on to the patio.

From left to right: cyclamen, Skimma Rubella and Winter Pansies (Wikimedia)

I would also like to plant some winter flowering plants to add some colour this winter. I particularly like the cyclamen, skimmia rubella and winter flowering pansies. Too be honest though my knowledge of gardening is very limited so i turned to both Gardeners World and Countryfile for advice and both offered great winter gardening tips.

Of course in the spring that is when i’ll start turning my plans for a child friendly easy maintenance garden into reality starting with tyre gardens for the children to create their own little worlds, a fairy garden so the fairies feel free to visit and maybe a trampoline, but until then I’d love to know: Do you continue gardening throughout the winter or are you more of a spring/summer gardener I love to read your comments.

Disclaimer: This is a collaborative post. However I do really plan to do all this you wouldn’t believe how excited the thought of gardening makes me.