Winter Preperation

With winter approaching it’s important to properly prepare your garden beds and lawn for these harsh climate conditions. I will make a two part section about winter preparation and maintenance. The first one will look at garden bed maintenance and plant preparation. Next week’s article will talk about lawn preparation and tool winterization. Being well prepared for winter can ensure the success for plant success.




It is important to deeply water all plants before the winter season. The reason for this is because during the winter the plants are unable to draw water from the frozen soil. Plants with a lack of water during the winter are more susceptible to winter injury. Starting in autumn begin to reduce the amount of water given to plants. This is so that the plant can properly prepare for winter and doesn’t produce new growth that can’t harden off for the winter. Once deciduous plants lose their leaves for the winter begin deeply watering your perennials, deciduous and coniferous plants before the ground freezes. This will make sure your plants have plenty of water throughout the winter.

Having your garden beds properly mulched will help protect your plants roots from the winter conditions. While snow insulates the ground, weather conditions can be very drastic. Having a layer of 2-4 inches of mulch will provide a good layer of insulation for the plant roots to help them from the changing temperatures during the winter months. Leaving fallen leaves in the garden beds is also another way to insulate your plants roots.



Late autumn is also a good time to cut back certain perennials. Some perennials, especially grasses, provide great winter interest. Others however become very weak and ugly looking. These should be cut back so in the spring so they can have a fresh start to growing and it also reduces the amount of spring garden preparation you must do.



Here’s a video showing some pruning techniques for perennials: Putting Perrenials To Bed

Tree problems can occur from sudden change of temperatures, usually at night when the temperature drops dramatically. Two common problems are called frost cracks and sun scaled. Frost cracks occur when there are substantial freezing and thawing tempuratures causing the water in the tree to expand and contract. A frost crack appears as a vertical crack in the bark and is usually found on thin barked trees. Sunscald is another form of winter injury that can cause cracks and splits. Sunscald occurs when cells in the living tissue underneath the bark thaw out on sunny days. This mainly happens on the south or west side of the tree. The cells rupture when they re-freeze when the temperature drops. When enough cells in a given area rupture noticeable damage will occur. Sunscald looks like discolored, sunken areas on the tree. This can lead to fungus or pest infections.




The tree on the left has a frost crack and the tree on the right has been affected by sun scald.

There are a couple ways to help prevent frost crack and sun scald. The most common one is to wrap the tree in white wrapping paper or white plastic wrap. Another method is to paint the tree with white paint but this method is mostly used in orchards since it will be aesthetically displeasing. These methods will help reflect and block the sun so the temperature within the tree doesn’t change as drastically. Wrapping with plastic also helps prevent against rodent and animal damage. They will be less likely to eat a plant that is wrapped because it makes it more difficult for them to access. You can also use a pest repellent spray if rodents are a common issue in your garden.