Gardening Q&As
From the Horticulture Desk at
Cornell Cooperative Extension, Warren County
By Julie Nathanson, Consumer Horticulture Educator
Question:
The winters here in the Northeast can be harsh on garden plants. What can
I do to prepare my garden for the winter?
Answer:
Some overall advice is to make sure you have cleaned up around your plants
and sufficiently covered the ones that may possibly be damaged by wind and
cold temperatures before Spring finally arrives.
More details on preparing the
garden for winter:
Cleaning up around your plants (removing the debris under them) will help
to reduce the chances of funguses, bacteria and insect eggs from overwintering
under your plants and possibly causing problems in your garden next Spring.
Weeding some areas now will also be helpful in order to help reduce next year’s
perennial weeds from getting a leaping head start in your garden.
Remove any annuals that will not survive the winter and either keep them as house plants over the winter or pull them up and discard them. Using sterile soil for potting plants that you will be taking indoors will help to prevent carrying in any annoying pests such as fungus gnats.
If any plants in your garden
are diseased, you can try cutting off the diseased areas. Be sure to put the
cuttings and any debris into the trash. If any of your plants have suffered
severely from disease it is probably best to remove the plant completely and
put it in the trash. This will give you an opportunity to choose a new plant
that you can think about over the winter, especially when the garden catalogs
start arriving mid to end of
winter.
If you have bulbs that cannot survive over the winter such as cannas, tender
gladiolus bulbs, dahlias, etc. they should be dug up, stored in pots or bags,
in peat moss or sand, and kept in a cool, dark area such as a cool basement
or garage. Temperatures should not go below freezing in these areas.
On the other hand, hardy bulbs, such as daffodils, tulips, hyacinth, etc. should be planted in the Fall. Bulbs planted nearer to the surface should be protected with some straw or evergreen boughs to help keep the ground around them from shifting or cracking over the winter. The shifting could cause the bulbs to be damaged by being pushed too close to the surface of the soil.
Although some cutting back and pruning can be done in the Fall, most plants are starting to go dormant for the winter and pruning would stimulate these plants to grow—which is what we don’t want to happen until Spring! Most pruning is better done at the end of the winter or very early Spring. The same goes for fertilizing—too much applied in the Fall can stimulate plant growth when the plants should be going dormant. There are some exceptions and if you have questions about winter care for a particular plant, you can contact your local Cooperative Extension for advice.
Most flowers and ornamental grasses can be left as they are over the winter.
Many provide interesting textures to the winter garden especially when covered
in snow or glistening under a coating of ice. The seed heads provide food
that can be used by overwintering birds. The rest of the plant can be used
for winter shelter by birds and other small wildlife.
You can mulch your perennial plants after about two hard frosts. Mulching too early can cause the ground to stay too warm and therefore, the plants will not have a successful dormant period before Spring. Also, mulching too early can encourage rodents to nest in the mulch and possibly do damage to the roots of the plants. Chopped leaves, especially from a leaf composting bin, makes a good organic mulch. You can also use other mulches such as wood chips, paper or pine needles.
You can protect the bark of trees by wrapping the stems or trunks with wire (it’s a lot easier to do this on smaller, younger trees). This will help prevent rodents or other critters from gnawing at the bark. Wrapping a layer of burlap around evergreens, especially broad leaved evergreens that are exposed to wind, can help to protect them over the winter. You can wrap the burlap around the tree or around stakes placed around the outer edge of the branches. Wooden boards (usually set up as an A-frame over the plant) can also be used to protect plants from winds and snow pile up from snow coming off roofs, from snow blowers and from other snow removal equipment.
For vegetable gardens, after clearing out your vegetable plants for the season, apply a layer of mulch a few inches thick or sow cover crops on the empty beds. These crops should be planted in September but if the weather is not too cold in the Northeast in October you can try planting rye or winter wheat. These crops can be turned into the soil in the Spring and will add useful nutrients to the soil.
Some plants and trees (especially the roots) can be injured over the winter by road salt and ice-melting chemicals. Even if there is good soil moisture the higher amounts of salt can cause a drought-like environment for the plants. Where salt or chemicals may be a problem, it is a good idea to flush the area around the roots with fresh water as soon as the snow melts. Placing salt-tolerant plants in these areas is also helpful. You can request a list salt-tolerant plants hardy in New York State from your Cooperative Extension.
If you have other questions about preparing your garden for the winter, or other gardening questions, please contact Cornell Cooperative Extension, Warren County at 518-623-3291. Also, please check out our website at http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/warren.
References:
‘Your summer garden party is over; time to prepare for winter,’
by Mona Bawgus, October 2, 2009.
‘The Types and Uses of Mulch in the Landscape,’ by Donald A. Rakow, Cornell University, Department of Floriculture and Ornamental Horticulture, 700.10, 7/89.
‘Winter Injury,’ Prepared by Juliet E. Carroll and George L. Good, Revised by Juliet Carroll, 8/88, Cornell University, Insect and Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. Cornell University, Yates Association: Road Salt & Plant Injury.