Wintertime is notoriously tough on landscaping, from waterlogging to the freeze-thaw cycle. But, with the right prep, even the wildest winter weather won’t undo your hard work.
There are all sorts of tasks to be thinking about. Pruning, weeding, cleaning and covering specific areas are important. But you’ll need to take care of the paving, patio and cobbling too.
In today’s article, we’re going to look at all the things you’ll need to consider to protect and preserve your landscaping over the colder months. Plus, we’ll be including special words of wisdom from our resident landscaping expert, Andy McLaughlin.
How to Prepare Your Paving for Winter
You’ve loved sitting out on your patio all summer, and now it’s time to give it the pre-winter care it needs so it’s just as lovely next year
Andy’s Words of Wisdom: “Carrying out a few simple tasks prior to the winter months can make all the difference in minimising the efforts needed to prepare your outdoor spaces for spring/summer the year after. I would recommend carrying out some of these tasks before the weather takes a turn for the worst, and I would advise ‘servicing’ your paved areas before any severe frosts can be expected.”
Weeding Your Paving
Start by proactively removing moss and weeds from your paving stones and joints. Nobody likes weeding, but there’s rarely a more important time for it.
Make sure to remove any growth from between slabs and tiles. If it’s bad now, then over winter, roots will spread further and could even disrupt the foundations of your feature. Once water and ice begin to get into cracks and gaps that are already wider than they should be (thanks to the weeds), there could be some serious movement.
When spring arrives and the snow clears, you might be horrified to discover that your paving and cobbling isn’t how you left it. And the weeds you didn’t remove? They’ll be back with a vengeance as well.
Andy’s Words of Wisdom: “To avoid having to weed the joints, you could consider removing the cracked/inadequate grout and replacing it with a suitable jointing compound, eliminating the weed growth from between the paving slabs.”
Our guide to tacking weeds in your paving can help you to cleanly remove weeds, roots and all, for good.
Sweeping Leaves
Autumnal leaves are a beautiful sight, but it’s important to regularly sweep or blow them away from your paving. If these leaves are left to decay on your stone pathway or driveway, they can end up discolouring the stone. You can also reduce the amount of leaves falling onto your paving by trimming back surrounding vegetation.
How to Deal with Icy Paving
Another paving concern over the winter months is slip risk due to ice and frost. Avoid using salt to give grip to your paving, as salt is abrasive and can cause cracking. We recommend sand or salt-free grit instead. You could also apply an anti-slip solution to your paving before winter.
Andy’s Words of Wisdom: “De-icing salts can cause discolouration to your stone and paving, so use a non-corrosive or more natural de-icer. This discolouration can be irreversible, and damage the overall appearance of your driveway.”
How to Deal with Snowy Paving
If you plan to shovel away the snow from your natural stone or porcelain paving, invest in a rubber or plastic-edged shovel. A pure metal shovel may scratch or damage your gorgeous paving slabs.
Cleaning and Sealing your Paving for Winter
Then, give your patio an overall clean with the aid of our patio cleaning guide and our patio cleaning solutions. We also recommend sealing your patio with our patio sealer before winter to avoid water and weather damage.
Our patio cleaning and aftercare guide can help you out with this step.
Can You Lay A Patio In Winter?
If you wish to lay paving in winter, avoid doing this if the temperature is below 3 degrees Celsius. When you pave in colder weather than this, you risk damage being caused by the freeze-thaw process. Not necessarily damage to the paving itself, but the subbase, mortar bed, and/or the jointing.
Andy’s Words of Wisdom: “In colder temperatures, moisture within the paving bed can freeze and when the frost thaws, it expands creating what is known as frost heave, and your paving may dislodge.”
For more advice on best practices for laying a patio, see our paving guide.
Can You Use a Patio in Winter?
Sitting out on your patio doesn’t have to be a summer-only treat. Adding a patio cover such as a pergola can protect your patio and patio furniture from the elements. Add a firepit and you can spend a cosy winter’s evening toasting marshmallows and sipping hot chocolate on the patio, bringing ski lodge vibes to your garden.
Protecting your Plants for Winter
While paving is our speciality, plants are a key part of many people’s landscaping, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention them in our guide.
Removing Dead and Rotten Plants
Of course, the flower skeletons don’t look good, but most importantly, you’re providing pests with a perfect home. Fungi and disease will be growing in places you can’t see and pests will be more than happy to dine on them throughout winter.
Pests that don’t hibernate (and yes, there are plenty of them) will use the flowers and other debris to build nests. If they do die off, then they may have already laid their eggs, ready to hatch when spring arrives.
Don’t give them that opportunity by removing your dead plants and keeping the soil tidy. Not only will your winter garden look much prettier, you’re also removing the disease and fungus which could spread to other parts of your garden. If it spreads to your paving and the soil underneath it, then you could be looking at a costly clean.
Caring for Vulnerable Plants
Thriving plants will need to be protected through the winter in order to bloom again in spring. Consider bringing your potted plants into the house or at least closer to the warmth and shelter of the home.
Delicate garden plants can be protected by horticultural fleece and propped up with stakes for additional support. You can also prevent plant beds from freezing by covering them with mulch.
Restart the Compost Heap
You might not have realised it, but your compost heap is probably in perfect condition now as well. Microbes will have developed throughout the collection over summer, and that nutrition needs to make its way back into your garden.
Work the compost back into your soil before winter, and come spring, your soil will be in great condition. Fertilise the lawn while you’re at it, and you’ll be giving your whole garden the boost it needs for spring.
Not only will your garden benefit from nature’s superfood, but you’ll have an empty compost bin to see you through winter too. You’ll be able to build a new compost heap throughout winter, and the leaves and other debris from autumn can only help. What’s more, you won’t have to worry about emptying a full compost heap on a cold winter’s day.
What Winter Plants to Grow
Your garden doesn’t need to turn into a barren wasteland the moment winter arrives. There are many plants that bloom beautifully during the cold months.
Try pretty pansies, aconites or the festively-named Christmas Rose for a garden full of flowers even in the dead of December.
How to Floodproof Your Garden for Winter
Flooding is another danger that comes with winter weather, but there are luckily a number of ways to protect your landscaping.
With paving, opt for a permeable (porous) stone such as sandstone for easy drainage. Although the paving itself may be porous to a certain extent, the porosity of the pavement is primarily determined by the subbase. The materials used to construct it, along with a suitable porous jointing compound, allow water to drain through – this is often referred to as being SuDS compliant, a specification that must be met to avoid surface water runoff entering the mains drains. You should also lay your paving at a slight slant so that water runs off rather than pooling. The fall ratio should be a minimum of 6:1, meaning that for every 60cm of height, the fall will be 10cm.
If you’re worried about your plants being damaged in a flood situation, try raised flower beds to elevate them out of harm’s way. Last but not least, channel drain systems work wonders in directing water away from your landscaping. Our garden drainage guide can help you determine the best location for drains, provide instructions on how to install them, and offer additional information.
At RF Paving, we’re here for all of your landscaping and paving needs. Just take a look at our blog for year-round tips on garden and driveway maintenance and care, or contact us today.
