Winterizing Your Landscape
Winter is coming. There are some things you need to do to your landscape to make sure it is ready for the coming cold. Here are some tips to make that easier.
Irrigation
If you live in a cold climate, it is time to drain your irrigation system and turn it off for the winter. Remove any hoses from spigots so the spigots don't freeze and rupture a pipe. Cover the spigots with insulated covers to keep them from freezing.
Plants, including trees and shrubs, still need water in the winter. They just need less in the winter. Water trees and shrubs once a month. Water perennials once every two weeks or so. Pick a sunny day above freezing to water. Remember to put the hose up after you water it, so it doesn't freeze and break.
Water Before A Freeze
When soil freezes, it freezes from the top down. Most plants have roots below the freeze line. However, these roots can only access water that is also below the freeze line. Deeply water your plants before a freeze to drive water down below the freeze line so your plants will have it even during the freeze.
Sweep Up Leaves
In the fall, deciduous trees lose their leaves. It is a good idea to rake these leaves up and compost them or dispose of them. Many insect pests overwinter in pupa in the leaf litter. Removing the leaves gives your plants a head start in spring by reducing pests.
Keep patios, sidewalks, and driveways free of leaves. Leaves hold moisture on the hard surfaces they rest on, damaging the seal and leaving stains.
Remove Dead Vegetation
Remove dead vegetation in your landscape beds and vegetable gardens. Many pests overwinter in dead vegetation, so just like with leaves, removing the vegetation gives your plants a head start in the spring. If the vegetation is disease free, you can compost it. Never compost diseased plants or you will spread the disease. Put diseased plants in the trash.
Once the foliage on bulbs has completely died, cut it flush with the ground. Do not cut the foliage with any green on it. Just before the foliage dies, it transfers a load of starch to the bulb that gives it the energy to grow in the spring. Cutting the green foliage starves the bulb of those nutrients. Without them, bulbs may not be able to come out in the spring.
Mulching
Mulch is always a good idea for landscape beds, but it really helps in winter. Three inches of hardwood mulch will help stabilize soil temperatures and reduce heaving. In the spring, remove the mulch over plants so the soil warms faster. Just push it to one side until the plants are four inches tall, then spread it around the growing plants again.
Leave a three-inch space around tree and shrub trunks to prevent the mulch from touching them. Mulch up against the trunk will cause a rotten spot to form because of the moisture it holds. Leave a one-inch space free of mulch around perennials and other plants.
Wind Barriers
If you have a delicate plant and live where it gets cold, putting a wind barrier up will help protect the plant from wind burn. The wind barrier will also reduce snow drifting against the plant and potentially breaking it.
Anti-Desiccant Spray
Consider treating evergreen trees and shrubs with an anti-desiccant spray such as Wilt-Pruf®. Wind moving across a plant's leaves or needles pull moisture out of the needles. In windy conditions, this can cause winter burn.
Anti-desiccant sprays put a layer of molecules on the needle that gradually peel off as wind blows across them, protecting the needles from the wind. Spray the tree or shrub on a day that is above freezing so the spray can set up before it freezes. It needs three to four hours of sunlight to set up properly, so make sure to spray the anti-desiccant when there is at least that much daylight left. Spray the tree or shrub again in three to four months if your cold weather lasts that long.
Wrapping Tree Trunks
Young trees such as red oaks, peach trees, and other thin barked species can get sunscald year-round. It is a good idea to wrap the trunks from the ground up to the first branch with tree wrap. This is a special wrap that protects the tree from sunscald but still allows the bark to breathe. You can get it from nurseries or big box stores.
Snow Removal
An accumulation of snow and ice on branches can cause them to break. After a storm, move through your landscape and shake the snow gently off of the branches of your trees and shrubs. This is also a good opportunity to check and see if there are any broken branches that need to be removed.
Pruning
Pruning dead and diseased branches off of trees and shrubs prevents these branches from breaking in wind storms or under a heavy snow. As branches break, they may tear the bark off the trunk, leaving the tree vulnerable to additional injury or disease. Branches that are over a structure can break and injure someone or crush a car or roof. Pruning off these branches prevents them from causing a problem.
Rodent Protection
In the winter, food is scarce for animals. Rodents such as porcupines and rats will gnaw the bark off of trees. Squirrels sometimes do this as well. This allows diseases easy entry into the tree's system. in addition, it can kill a tree if the rodent girdles it. To combat the problem, wrap the tree with hardware cloth. The stiff wire hurts the rodent's teeth and prevents it from reaching the bark.
Avoid Deicing Salts
Be careful when using deicing salts so that they do not get on your landscaping. When the snow or ice melts, it can drain across the area where your plants are growing and poison plants in the vicinity. Make sure you adjust the drainage from hardscapes, so they don't drain onto salt sensitive plants.
Store Outdoor Furniture
Outdoor furniture should be cleaned, repaired, and stored in a garage or shed. If something is too big to move, make sure it is covered with a cover designed for the outdoors. Putting your furniture up will prevent wind, ice, and snow from damaging it. Toss anything that can't be repaired and make a note to buy a replacement before spring.
Plant Bare Root Plants
Winter is the ideal time to plant bare root plants. We ship our bare root plants when they are dormant to give them the best chance to grow into great plants. From trees like box elders to perennials like black-eyed susans, planting when the plant is dormant yields the best outcome.
We Can Help
Garden Delights Nursery has hundreds of plants to choose from. If you have questions about winterizing a specific plant, or you want to order plants, give us a call at 931.692.7325 today.