It’s time to get your garden ready for winter! Minimize winter damage with these easy steps.

Final Gardening Tasks

Watering: Keep your garden watered until the ground freezes, usually mid-December. This will help protect your plants from drying out during the winter season.  It’s a critical step for new plants.

Mulching: Add a two to three inch layer of mulch to beds to insulate plant roots. This will minimize the heaving of roots during the freeze and thaw cycle in the winter.

Mowing: Continue mowing your lawn into November, as weather permits. The last cut should be lower than normal. Shorter grass prevents debris from collecting in the lawn during winter.

Pruning: While dead wood can be pruned any time of the year, pruning live wood is best done at this time of year.  

Golden Rule of Pruning:  Prune before 4th of July and after Halloween, but not in between.

Timing depends on the type of plant. Spring-blooming plants should not be pruned in the fall. Click here for more tips on pruning! 

Protect from Wind

Cover plants to protect from winter damage.  Cold, drying winds are the most damaging.   English Gardens has shrub jackets that wrap easily around plants for quick and effective protection. Use a shrub jacket for each plant or create a windbreaker with a burlap screen.

Steps to Create a Burlap Screen

1. t’s safe to install this burlap screen around Thanksgiving or during December.  Most importantly, get the stakes in the ground before it freezes.
2. Drive wood or metal stakes into the ground around the plants to be protected – about two to six inches from the edge of the plants. 
3. Attach burlap to the stakes to the full height of the plant.  Do not put burlap over the top or wrap the plant directly.  Two rows of burlap may be necessary for tall plants.
4. For areas where there is more wind exposure, such as hills, near lakes, or wide open space, add a second layer of burlap for added protection. If in doubt, it’s always better to overprotect. 
5. The burlap shouldn’t touch the plants directly.  This holds in too much moisture that can create fungus.  And keep burlap off the top of the plant.  This would allow snow to collect, which could crush the plant.

Protect Roses: Cut the plant back 10 to 12 inches tall so it fit inside a rose cone.  Or use a rose collar, which you put around the base of the plant and fill with mulch to protect the crown from freezing.   Both of these need to be removed in the spring, around the end of March, before the plant starts actively growing.

Additional Protection: Wilt Stop is a great solution to protect plants from drying out, winter kill and salt damage. Spray in the late fall when temperature is above freezing so that spray will not freeze on foliage. See bottle for more directions.

Winter Precautions

Snow: A snow-covered landscape is a good way to insulate and protect plants from the wind.  However, piling snow onto plants when shoveling walkways or driveways can have the opposite effect.  Snow becomes very dense and compacted, often turning to ice, which will cause freeze damage and can crush plants.  Keep shoveled snow off plants.

Salt: Road salt or sodium chloride can be harmful to plants.  It seeps into the ground and dries out the roots of plants. Make sure that when you salt your pathways that it doesn’t run off into your garden beds. Try a safe salt solution called Ice Vise with Traction. Ice Vise with Traction comes in a 50lb bag for $24.99 and it’s safer for your grass and plants while melting the ice!