How to Protect Plants from the Winter Cold

If your weather is a bit too cold or your plants a bit too tender, there are things you can do to help your garden through the winter. It all depends on how tender the plants are, how cold the weather is, how long it will be cold out, and how much energy and trouble you want to spend. For some combinations of climates and plants, no amount of extra care will keep them growing, but in many cases, a bit of extra care can bridge the gap.

Choose plants that are suited to your climate. This is the simplest, lowest-effort choice. Learn your which growing zone you are in (if your country has such a classification system; the US system is coordinated by the USDA) or at least your likely low and high temperatures for the year and choose plants that can withstand those temperatures. Some plants may die back, lose their leaves, or otherwise go dormant in winter, so take the time to know how plants that are well adapted to your climate handle it. The disadvantage to this approach, of course, is that it limits your selection of plants.

• Annuals are plants that die back each year and must be replanted if they do not reseed themselves. In colder climates, some perennial plants may be grown as annuals if they would otherwise not survive the winter. The growing season of some annuals may be extended with shelters or by starting the plants indoors or in a greenhouse.
• Perennials are plants that continue growing from one year to the next. For these, you will need to learn what, if any, additional care they require to survive the winter.
• Talk to the people at your favorite nursery about what to expect from a plant during winters in your area. Also ask where to plant and how to care for a plant before you purchase it.
• Look for varieties and cultivars of plants suited to your climate. Did you know that there are citrus trees bred to better withstand the cold? Did you know that there's a tomato cultivar called 'San Francisco Fog'?

Throw an old blanket, drop cloth, or tarp over tender plants. If you need to protect your plants from a small number of especially cold nights, a simple shelter such as an old blanket may be enough. Take it off during the day so that the plants can get light and air. You may need to weigh or tie down the cloth so that it doesn't blow away.

Bring the plants indoors. If you can, carry or wheel the plants into a garage, sun room, greenhouse, or shed. Outdoor plants may not be at their best indoors, since they won't necessarily get enough light, but they may make it long enough to survive through the winter. For certain tender plants in cold winters, you may also be able to overwinter them by digging up the roots at the right time and storing them correctly indoors.

Use mulch. Mulch acts as an insulator, so mulch can protect plants, especially from wide swings in temperature. Sometimes the cold temperature is not what damages the plant. It's the freeze/thaw cycle affecting the soil and causing it to "heave" the plant. Or, the frozen soil can prevent the plant from drawing up water and it can die from lack of moisture. Consult a garden book about the particular plants you are growing. Some will tolerate this approach better than others. Mulch applied fairly thickly over the soil will insulate the roots. Certain plants, such as roses and strawberries, may be overwintered by covering them completely with a clean mulch.

Look up your particular plants and find out how much cold they will tolerate, how they behave in cold, and how best to overwinter them or protect them from frost. Some plants tolerate coverings, transplantation, or digging better than others.

Hardscaping

Creating your own homey space doesn't just mean decorating the interior of your home. It also requires putting some effort into improving your backyard. Hardscape is the structural area of your backyard (walls, decks, patio, fountains, statues…) as opposed to the softscape, which includes the greenery & plants. There are many hardscape designs and techniques to choose from for your patio and backyard that can fit a variety of budgets.

When completly re-desining and entire backyard (hard and softscape) First, complete the hardscaping. It's easiest to work on hardscaping projects when you don't have a lot of plants in the way -- plants that could easily be damaged, as well, in the course of your hardscaping projects.

Depending on your style and needs, you can use a variety of hardscape features in your backyard. Possibilities include:

• a greenhouse, an outdoor kitchen, complete with a barbeque and sink, a patio, a pool, a terrace, arbors, brick or cobblestone walkways, fences, fishponds, lighting, such as a row of garden or landscape lights, seating, such as benches and lounge chairs, trellises, water features, such as fountains or waterfalls.

While this list is certainly not comprehensive, it does outline some of the key hardscape features that you can include in your backyard. Considering all of the options can help you create the backyard of your dreams!

As you start choosing key features that you want to install, keep in mind what each requires for installation. Although putting in some features, such as an arbor, may be relatively easy, others, such as pools and fountains, require significantly more work ahead of time.

You can make hardscape improvements for as little or as much money as you have. If you are working on a limited budget, keep in mind that all backyard details do not have to be done all at once. Instead, you can plan your hardscape improvements in phases, installing various phases, as money becomes available.

Buying cheaper versions or getting less of certain items is another way to cut on the price. For example, instead of installing a $3,000 fountain, you can create $100 pond and still get the enjoyment out of having a water feature in your backyard. Another idea is to have a narrower path made of bricks, rather than a wider one with rare stones. If you use your imagination, you can create many things of true beauty for just a little cost.

Gardening 101

New to gardening? Here are several tips to help newcomers to the world of gardening become successful gardeners:

1. Start small. The surest way to become frustrated with gardening is to bite off more than you can chew. Of course, small is a relative term; in an area of, say, only 100 square feet, you can plant a lot more than you might think.

A shady spot that measures only 96 square feet is one of my favorite gardens. There's a large Japanese maple, a small green one, a shrub yew, dozens of foliage plants, a few flowering plants and some groundcover.

Small gardens are easy to manage, and by starting on a small scale you'll quickly learn gardening basics such as weed control, pest and disease control, watering requirements, and so on without being overwhelmed. As you develop more confidence and skills, you can expand the area or create a new garden bed elsewhere.

2. Start a compost pile. Whether you choose to build an elaborate bin and compost on a grand scale, create a simple pile in an out-of-the-way corner of your property, or place a store-bought composter in a sunny spot in the yard doesn't matter. All that matters is that you make compost--and use it, of course. Spread a thin layer over your garden beds at least once a year. Mix it with the native soil when planting. Apply it as a topdressing to lawns. Top off containers with it. And use it to make compost tea.

And if you can't make your own compost for whatever reason, remember you can always buy compost in a bag. Many cities across the country make and sell compost in bags or in bulk, producing it from leaves and other lawn refuse collected throughout the year.

3. Maintain healthy soil. The use of compost goes hand in hand with maintaining healthy the soil, but there are other things to consider:

- Try to avoid walking on the soil in established gardens, because every step compacts the soil, and compaction makes it difficult for roots to grow. Create paths between rows or in beds, or place a board on the soil adjacent to areas where you work to distribute your weight more evenly over the soil.
- Avoid working the soil when it's wet. Otherwise, once it dries, you'll wind up with big clumps of hard-packed soil. And finally, don't overwork the soil, especially with a rototiller. Good soil isn't powdery; it's a mixed bag of particles of varying sizes and shapes.

4. Mulch. Mulch suppresses weed growth, maintains soil moisture, stabilizes soil temperatures and much more.

5. Water properly. Don't water frequently for only brief periods of time. Doing so causes plant roots to hover near the soil surface. Instead, deep soak each time you water to encourage roots to grow deep down into the soil. And to the extent that you're able, water early in the morning so plant leaves have a chance to dry during the day. That will help minimize fungal diseases.

6. Go native. I'm not a native-plant fanatic, but there's no getting around the fact that native plants tend to be easier to grow, have fewer pest and disease problems and require less supplemental watering. As a result, if you grow a lot of native plants, you'll develop more confidence with fewer hassles.

However, there are hundreds of non-native plants that are well adapted to various areas of the country and are easy to grow. Many others, however, are notorious for pest and disease problems or require special care. To learn more about native versus non-native plants in your area, visit your favorite nursery or contact your local master gardener's group.

7. Minimize Maintenance. Every suggestion I've made so far--from starting small to going native--will reduce the amount of time you have to spend in the garden. But there are two more I'd like to highlight:

- Cut back on fertilizers
- Prune only when necessary

8. Visit the garden regularly. If you'll spend just 10 minutes a day wandering around your lawn and garden--say, early in the morning with a cup of coffee or right after work-- you'll form an invaluable bond with everything that grows. And along the way, you might stop and pull a few weeds, spot a plant in need of water, realize that slugs or aphids are on the move, and so on.

By dealing with those little things each day, you won't be so overwhelmed by the time the weekend rolls around. In fact, you may discover that by tending to your garden daily but briefly, you'll have time for alternative weekend activities.