Winterizing Your Garden and Trees
The winter may not be the ideal time to harvest and upkeep your garden; it’s crucial to “winterize” your garden to protect your plants, fruits, and vegetables in the future seasons. Remember, cold weather isn’t the only thing you’ll want to protect your garden against; wind, snow, hail, alternating freeze/thaw cycles, and the bright sun can also damage your future harvests from returning as plentiful as you remembered!
Even if the winter sounds like a dormant time for your garden, it’s essential to winterize to prepare your harvest for success. Take a look at some of the best tips for winterizing your garden and trees to make sure you’re ready for the spring:
Bring Plants Inside. Though some plants can withstand the winter weather, more tender plants will need to be taken inside so you can take care of them. Succulents, potted flowers, and tender bulb plants are mainly the plants you’ll need to bring inside, as sudden drops in temperatures will kill them quickly.
Weed. Try to get those weeds out before the winter weather sets in. While some people would rather wait to get the weeds out in the spring, weeds can be the winter home for many pathogens and pest eggs that will come out until the spring and ruin your harvest. Weeding before the winter will help you out more than you know!
Harvest and Storage. Depending on the type of vegetables you’re planting, you’ll want to remove, harvest, and store some of your more tender vegetables for the winter, including tomatoes, zucchinis, peas, winter squash, and pumpkins. Harvest these and bring them inside, then properly store them so you can enjoy them throughout the winter. Heartier vegetables will tolerate the frost, but you may want to keep an eye on them to ensure everything is okay. And be sure to pull out any diseased plants from the ground as well!
Cover Plants. Cover your garden beds and other plants with a plastic covering to protect them from frost, snow, and other winter weather. You can also use an old carpet to cover it. This will prevent weeds from growing and other seeds from sprouting, too!
Trees. Cover trunks with plastic tree guards or tree wrap to protect them from winter weather damage and from trunk injuries caused by deer, rabbits and mice. Do winter pruning while the trees are dormant. It’s also good to give all your plants one last good watering before the ground freezes.
Our certified staff and Illinois Certified Nurseryman can answer all your landscaping and gardening questions. Stop by Winding Creek Nursery and Garden Center for a variety of trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, and vegetable plants, as well as home and garden decor. Visit our website or call us at (630) 553-7211.
Sources:
https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/landscaping/how-to-winterize-a-garden/
https://www.almanac.com/10-tips-prepare-your-garden-winter
https://www.plantmegreen.com/blogs/news/how-to-winterize-trees-shrubs
Comments
Post a Comment