Winter Is Here: How To Winterize Your Garden

If there’s one that thing experienced gardeners know it’s that their job is never done. The type of work just changes with the seasons. Right now it’s time to winterize your garden. Not only with that help your plants to survive the bitterly cold nights and short days with little sunshine, but it’s also important if you want to ensure that the garden will be ready to produce abundantly during the spring and summer months.

Turn off taps

Nobody wants busted outdoor water pipes, so it makes sense to turn off the water once winter sets in. Before you do that though you should give the whole garden a really good watering. This is particularly important in the case of new perennials, shrubs, or trees. It’s a good idea to schedule this final watering session for a week or two before the ground in your part of the world starts freezing.

When it comes to turning off the water, make sure you also empty and store gardening supplies such as rain barrels and hoses so the cold won’t cause them to crack. 

Clean up the garden

Apart from looking untidy, dead plants can harbor fungi, pests, and disease. Removing spent stalks and other plant debris from the surface of the garden soil will help to prevent pests from taking over the garden once spring arrives. It will also give your garden that well-cared-for look the whole winter and save you a lot of unnecessary work once spring arrives. Burying plant debris in the garden also feeds the soil and improves soil tilth. 

Some plants might need winter jackets

If you are trying to establish rosebushes, shrubs, or trees in your garden, they will typically need additional protection from the bitterly cold winter winds. Apart from the DIY types, you can also buy various ready-made winter jackets for your plants. Two examples include fleece jackets and cones. The latter is very popular with rosebushes. Coming back to DIY: it’s not that hard to make your own winter jackets for plants from large cardboard boxes, garbage bags, landscape fabric, or burlap. Just make sure to secure them properly so they can’t be blown off by the winter winds.

Get rid of invasive weeds

Dig up all weeds and other plants you no longer want in the garden. With invasive plants, you have to take particular care. Make sure they go into the trash bin. Otherwise put them on the burn pile - just not on the compost pile. The majority of invasive weeds will stay viable in a weed pile or compost heap. Removing them completely is the best way to prevent them from starting to sprout again in spring, ready to disrupt your summer crop.

If your yard is covered in snow consider using a snow blower to clear it.

Prune your perennial plants

Fall is a great time to trim certain perennials, but beware: this does not apply to all of them. Fennel, for example, can benefit from being pruned in fall, and so can blackberries. According to new research, however, spent raspberry canes are still nourishing the plant’s crown during the winter months. Blueberries are another candidate for spring instead of fall/winter pruning. Focus your early pruning endeavors on herbs such as thyme, rosemary, and sage; and vegetables such as rhubarb and asparagus. 

Take care of the bulbs

Tender bulbs that might not survive the freezing winter months should be dug up and stored. After digging them up, dry them out on paper towels or newspaper for a couple of weeks. Then place them in a container. Make sure they’re covered with sand, sawdust, vermiculite, or perlite. Then store them until the time to replant them arrives.  If you decide to leave some of the more hardy bulbs in the ground, add another layer of mulch to them when freezing weather is predicted.

Spread mulch

The following is particularly important in the case of recently planted perennials that haven’t had enough time to grow a large root system. If possible wait until the soil has begun to freeze before adding a thick layer of mulch. This will help to keep the soil consistently frozen/cold during the winter months and prevent thaw/freeze cycles in the ground that could cause it to heave, in the process uprooting new plants. Check the mulch a month or two into the new year to check whether it hasn’t been thinned out by the winter winds. If necessary add more.

Protect the plants that remain

The cold winds of winter can be very tough on your remaining plants. Exposed evergreens are particularly vulnerable to wind burn. During the fall, before the ground starts to freeze, drive 3 stakes into the soil on the side where the wind typically comes from. Place them in a ‘V’ formation, with the front one facing the wind. Now wrap landscape fabric or burlap around all three to form a protective barrier.

If you want to grow cool-season crops such as spinach, lettuce, and beets in the heart of winter, you will have to protect them by erecting a cold frame around them. The setup procedure is similar to the wind shields mentioned above, except this time it goes right around the bed. You will need agricultural cloth, a couple of stakes, and some wire hoops.

Get the soil ready for spring

There’s no reason to wait for spring to enrich your garden soil with compost, manure, kelp, bone meal, or rock phosphate. In the majority of climates, doing this during wintertime means these nutrients have more time to break down, become biologically active and start enriching the soil. Another benefit is that won’t be any need for you to wait until the garden has dried out in spring before you start working the soil. 

After you’ve added compost and other nutrients, you can put a covering such as a plastic sheet over the bed to prevent rain from washing all your hard work away. This is particularly important in the case of raised beds because they drain more easily than beds that are at ground level. Take off the sheeting when spring arrives. Before spring planting, till the bed gently with a hoe.