Seasonal Care

Winter Season
As the days get shorter and nights get colder much of the landscape beauty fades, it's easy to forget that our gardens need preparation for the winter months.

RESIDENTIAL:
Most deciduous flowering shrubs, unlike their evergreen counterparts, provide little visual interest in winter. Yet these shrubs can be damaged by heavy snows or ice storms that snap their branches. To avoid such plant damage, you can build or buy a shelter within which to house your flowering shrubs for the winter. To protect evergreen shrubs from snow and ice, you can purchase commercial tree wraps. The tree wraps are made of polypropylene netting and are available at local hardware stores other suggestions are burlap. By wrapping plants with such tree wraps, their limbs are pulled in toward their trunks and supported, so that they won't snap under the strain of snow or ice loads. The burlap shelter can serve to protect shrubs (and small trees) not only from wind, but also road-salt spray. In addition, the chicken wire (if buried a few inches below-ground) can serve to keep pests from nibbling at your plants. Avoid piling up mulch right around the base of a tree or shrub, as the mulch provides a hiding place for rodent pests, which might gnaw at the trunk. Keep the mulch at least one foot away from the base..

Winter To do's

• Protect shrubs planted under your roofline from snow damage.
• Water evergreens, especially newly planted ones, when the ground is not frozen.
• Bring clay pots and statues made of cement, clay, and turn bird bath bowls over as to not retain water.
• Stock up on salt/icey melt for sidewalks.
• Apply winter mulches after the ground has frozen.