Take these steps to protect your garden.
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Winter in the South can be hard on plants.
Fluctuating temperatures, sporadic freezes, and winter winds all take their toll on the garden.
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Some plants need a little extra protection to make it through cold snaps.
Dont wait until the weatherman predicts a freeze.
Learn how to keep plants warm in winter and take steps now to prepare your garden.
Why Plants Need Protection
Winter is a rest period for the garden.
Many plants go dormant, with their tops dying back and all their energy stored safely below ground.
However, not all dormant plants are safe from cold damage.
Heaving can literally lift shallow-rooted plants out of the ground, exposing the tender crowns to freezing temperatures.
Other plants weather the cold above ground.
Even well adapted plants can suffer damage if they enter the winter stressed by drought.
With a little planning, you might help plants withstand all these types of winter damage.
Protecting Plant Roots
Winter garden protection begins with caring for the life force of plantstheir roots.
Provide plant roots with a warm winter blanket of mulch.
Mulch also reduces problems with heaving soils.
This is a great way to use all those autumn leaves littering the lawn.
The result is browning or burning of the foliage.
Irrigate all plantings at least 24 hours before hard-freezing weather if the soil is dry.
check that plants enter the dormant season in a healthy and vigorous condition.
Proper irrigation during autumn will help prepare landscape plants for the coming winter.
Choosing Cold-Tolerant Plants
As they say in football, the best defense is a good offense.
You also want to ensure plants can tolerate summer heat typical of your area.
Pay attention to the weather report and know the limits of sensitive plants in your garden.
When freezing temperatures threaten, we can take steps to insulate plants against the cold.
For brief freezes, you cansimply cover plantswith blankets, towels, burlap, or other insulating materials.
verify to weigh the edges of the covering down to the ground.
Lift coverings during the day to prevent excess heat build up from the sun.
Remove insulating materials as soon as temperatures allow.
Remove warps in early spring prior to spring growth to avoid damaging the trunk.
These materials slowly release heat during the night, keeping temperatures beneath insulation blankets a few degrees warmer.
Lights can also be placed beneath covers to provide heat.
While some homeowners use 60-watt bulbs, these can be a fire hazard if they touch the plant cover.
The lights provide additional heat without getting hot enough to burn plants or plant covers.
Remove covers during the day to provide ventilation and prevent excess heat build up due to solar gain.
you might take advantage of microclimates to site sensitive plants.
The same is true of some patios.
Boxwoods and other broadleaf evergreens benefit from winter wind protection.
Or build a temporary windbreak by stretching burlap between two stakes or over a lattice frame.
When it comes to keeping plants warm this winter, a little preparation can go a long way.
Give plants a layer of protection by mulching andwatering as needed.
Be ready for those freezes by keeping a pile of blankets on hand.
