Winter Preparations Guideline

Preparing your Gardens for Winter

With the colder weather bringing in thoughts of winter, you may be wondering what you can do to protect your garden plants from the harsh conditions of winter. Here at Shady Hill, we can always help you in person with specific questions, but here are some tips for general winterization.

 

Perennial gardens: The current recommendations are to leave the perennial plants standing. Native pollinators overwinter in the hollow stems of perennials and birds use the standing flower heads as food. Leaf litter provides habitat for overwintering beneficials as well. If the thought of a messy garden gives you the shivers, you can cut back the perennials after the frost kills the greens. Most perennials can be cut to the ground, with a few exceptions. Heuchera should be left alone. Sub-shrubs like lavender and Perovskia (Russian Sage) should only be trimmed back, leaving the woody growth.
Grasses give nice winter interest but should be cut to the ground before new growth starts in the spring. An application of Plantskydd, critter repellent can help keep your plants from becoming some mouse or vole’s
winter dinner.

 

Shrubs and Evergreens: Most deciduous shrubs and needle evergreens winter over just fine with no intervention. Broad leaf evergreens like Rhododendrons, Holly and Boxwood can benefit from a couple of applications of an antidesiccant like Wiltpruf. This helps prevent winter burn. Be sure they are well hydrated before the ground freezes as well.

 

Young Trees: Newly planted young trees should be protected with a trunk wrap product to prevent sun scald and rodent damage. Sun scald heats up the south side of the trunk in the sun, causing the bark to expand, but then at night, the bark shrinks again. This can cause the bark to peel off and could kill a young tree. Rodents may chew on the lower bark, possibly girdling the tree. A tree that has had all its bark removed completely around, will die. Nutrients can no longer flow between the leaves and the roots. Follow the instructions on the product you use and remove it when the tree grows as to not constrict the growth.

 

Vegetable gardens: Clean up any diseased plants and trash them. Healthy organic matter can go into the compost pile. If you grow tomatoes and peppers, now is the time to apply lime. It takes a while for the calcium
to act in the soil to raise the ph.

 

Tulips, Daffodils, spring bulbs: You will never regret the effort you put in to plant bulbs in the fall. Their color and life is so joyful in the spring, when we really need it! Daffodils are critter resistant, but tulips may benefit from another application of Plantskydd.

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We hope this helps, but as always feel free to ask us directly any specific questions. We are here to help. And please come visit over the winter for all your Christmas decorating needs, and in the deep winter, in our tropical oasis houseplant house. We are open all winter 9:00-4:00 daily. We look forward to seeing you!