How to look after your outdoor spaces through winter

We’ve broken down seven outdoor areas worth checking to keep your home and garden in good shape through winter.

Walk your garden and think honestly about whether what’s planted can handle winter without much attention. Frost-sensitive plants in exposed spots are the obvious ones to move or protect. But the less obvious problem is what’s sitting directly against your house: dense planting up against timber or painted cladding holds moisture and creates the conditions for rot to get started long before you’d see it inside.

Position matters as much as plant choice, particularly in exposed areas. Paul Motley of Supreme Services, a North Canterbury-based landscaper with over 25 years in the trade, puts it simply: “We look for orientations where plants are going to do better, protected from those prevailing conditions.” That’s as relevant for a Canterbury home in a nor’wester as it is for a Wellington garden facing south.

For replanting, Paul recommends plants that are reliably hardy through a NZ winter and give something back; grevilleas and leucadendrons flower and attract birds, camellias and magnolias handle most soil types and keep going year after year, and photinia (commonly known as Red Robin) works well as a border, hedge, or standalone tree.

Soil type is worth considering too. In sandy coastal areas, natives tend to cope best. Elsewhere, a landscaper can advise on whether bringing in additional soil would help get new plantings off to a better start.

Not sure where to start with what to plant? Paul’s advice is straightforward: “Have you seen something you like down the street? Take a photo and come back to me with that.”