Alan Titchmarsh revealed the three gardening tasks people should do now to prepare for spring (Image: Getty)
Alan Titchmarsh says there are three things all gardeners should do to prepare for the cold winter.
While our are bombarded with the wintry conditions that are to be expected at this time of year, the former presenter has said now is the perfect time to prepare for spring.
revealed that the first thing avid gardeners should turn their attentions to this festive season is disposing of snails. He said: “(Looking in flower pots) What do you find? Snails, hibernating at the moment, quite quietly there, but you don’t want to leave them, because come the spring they’ll start munching everything.”
Alan claimed that disposing of snails is one of the most important garden tasks this winter (Image: Getty)
Don’t miss… [TIP]
Explaining that how gardeners decide to dispose of the creatures is up to them, he added: “What you do, is entirely up to you. Me, I’ve never been able to crunch a snail underfoot, so I know they’ve got a homing instinct, but there’s a big wall and the country lane on the other side. That’s what I do (as he throws the snail over the wall).”
Alan claims that there is also another crucial benefit: “There’s nothing worse than spring arriving and discovering all your pots are filthy. (And you think) Oh well, they’ll just have to do. You know, you’re carrying on disease with things like this if you leave them looking mucky, and you start potting things and sowing seeds in that come the spring.”
The 75-year-old added: “So, wash them – warm soapy water and with plastic pots like this, one of these little kitchen scrubbers is quite good. You can soak the pot to soften that caked on compost inside and then just quite assiduously, clean it all off inside and out, to make sure that there’s as little old compost on there as possible.”
Don’t miss… [TIP] [WARNING] [REPORT]
Lastly, Alan said there is one last job for gardeners to tend to make sure they’re fully prepared for spring.
He continued: “If you want to make sure you can get on the soil as early as possible with sowings come spring, then the way to do it, is to cover it right now with thick black polythene like this.
“What this does, is to warm the soil up, not a tremendous amount of degrees, but enough to enable you to get on there rather earlier because you’re keeping a lot of the rain off. So, it’s not quite so wet, which means it’s not quite so cold.”
He also warned gardeners to make sure that they’ve cleaned all of their gardening equipment ahead of the new season.
Alan Titchmarsh stars on Love Your Weekend today (Sunday, December 1) at 9.30am on ITV.