by Sheri Fresonke Harper

Created on: March 14, 2009

Winter time freezes and snows can cause damage to your hardy plants when young or if the low temperatures exceed winter norms and you didn't prepare your garden carefully. Also, winter can cause problems with water runoff from heavier rains or from melting snows. Although plants are the least expensive part of a garden (the most being creating structure), after you've cared for a plant and selected it for your garden, you hate to see it die.

Winterize Your Garden with Mulch

Follow your last weeding of the fall by covering all your garden beds with a good layer of mulch, 3-6 inches deep using mushroom compost or recycled yard waste compost. If you keep your garden beds covered with ground cloth and cedar chips, bark, or bark dust, be sure to check your beds and see that the ground cloth isn't exposed. The bad part about wood products used on your garden is that they leach nitrogen as does rainfall and snowfall, whereas mushroom compost, recycled yard waste compost, steer manure and chicken manure help fertilize your plants and enrich the soil when you turn your garden beds in the spring. I like steer manure and chicken manure on top of my evergreen, perennial and bulb gardens. Roses and herbs in the mild Puget Sound area can be encouraged to bloom and leaf out to soon if you provide fertilizer in the mulch.

Newly planted shrubs, roses, perennials and trees need extra care. Three plants especially appreciate a 6-12 inch layer of leaves or straw stacked around their baselavender, roses and rosemary. Be sure that in doing this, you leave some leaves exposed to the sunlight.

Winterize Your Garden by Pruning

Pruning branches of your roses, trees and evergreens can prevent unattractive breakage. I often leave my rose branches fairly long because it's easier to prune off dead parts after winter and because we aren't much affected by wind.

Winterize Your Garden by Taking Tender Plants Indoors

Know your areas planting zone and its extremes of high and low temperatures. Any plant that isn't tolerant of your area's low temperatures should be brought inside during winter. Examples for the Puget Sound area include geranium which will die back during a freeze and fuschia. Trim back the branches of these plants to the last leaf or two on main branches. Place somewhere dark and water occasionally with a small amount of water. Too much water will cause the plants to rot. In Spring, bring into sunlight indoors and feed a light fertilizer like 10-10-10. Bring inside any tender bulbs

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