Maintaining Wild Tip
by Besa Schweitzer, chapter member
When the weather is pleasant, and it is too nice to stay inside there are plenty of garden chores to do outside.
Winter is a good time to repair paths, add more wood chips to a mushy spot, dig trenches to divert water and make the stepping stones level.
When the ground is bare is an opportunity to rethink the garden layout, add or move paths, create intimate places to sit, and expand beds.
As my trees get bigger, I’m constantly moving paths away from intruding branches or picking a branch to trim back.
In the fall my sculptures and attractive rocks tend to get buried, so winter is a time to find them and give them a spot to be better seen.
Interesting logs make a nice garden focal point, but they gradually decay and must be replaced – a good wintertime project.
About our new Maintaining Wild series:
To help you keep up with your native garden care in 2026 we’re posting a maintenance tip each week on our website and on Facebook. These tips will include native garden specific tasks as well as some basic gardening advice.
A new tip will appear weekly on Facebook, on Friday at 1 pm.
To join the discussion, comment on our Facebook page.
Stay tuned for a new garden maintenance tip each week to help get you out into the garden and make 2026 a year for Maintaining Wild. Let’s have a discussion and share our knowledge!
View all tips on a single page: https://stlwildones.org/maintaining-wild-tips/
