Protecting Plants from Winter's Hazards
A Look at Methods for Saving Plants in Winter Weather
Sep 1, 2009
In Prepare the Organic Garden for Winter, we listed things you should do to prepare your garden for Winter. Now, we detail some of these methods.
Mulching the Ground
Any plant benefits from keeping the temperature of the ground as even as possible to prevent the freeze-thaw cycle that heaves roots. If your ground freezes more than a few inches below ground, you also need to minimize this freezing by raising the ground temperature. A thick layer of an organic mulch helps with both problems.
After the ground begins to freeze, lay a 2-4 inch layer of mulch around all plants susceptible to heaving or freezing. Putting mulch on before the ground has frozen can hold too much moisture around the roots and cause rot.
Do not put the mulch close enough to any stems or branches above ground to encourage rot. Leave the mulch in place until after the last average freeze date for your locale.
Staking Trees
Young trees are especially in danger of being damaged by heavy snow. Before you expect snow to begin in your locale, stake young trees on at least two sides. You can sink sturdy posts a foot or two away from the tree's trunk, and then use rope or heavy twine to secure the trunk to the stakes.
You can also put the rope around the trunk and then use sturdy ground stakes set a distance from the tree to secure the trunk.Make sure the rope cannot cut into the bark of the tree; a length of old garden hose threaded onto the rope and placed around the trunk is a perfect way to prevent bark damage (and to recycle old hoses!). As soon as the snow is gone for the Winter, remove the staking.
Bracing Branches
Trees and shrubs with a wide spread or multi-stemmed trees and shrubs benefit from having their branches braced so the load of the snow is shared and is less likely to break branches.
There are several ways to brace branches:
- Rope them together using rope or bungee cords, being careful to protect the bark from being rubbed when branches move.
- Use wooden stakes set into the ground to take some of the weight of the branch as you would if staking a fruit-laden tree.
- Graft branches or stems together. This is a bit tricky, but works well for arborvitae and other multi-stemmed evergreen plants where the stems are hidden from view. You cut pieces of stem long-enough to reach across two large, upright stems and graft each end of the support stem to the upright stems. You can learn about grafting in most books about plant propagation.
Wrapping Plants
Many plants subject to frost, dry winds, ice storms, hail, and sleet can be protected by wrapping the entire plant with burlap or another breathable material. Wait for the first heavy frost before wrapping a plant.
Using burlap bags or rolled burlap, wrap the entire plant from the bottom up, making sure the burlap overlaps to there are no openings. At the top, tie or clip the burlap. Now, use good hemp or jute twine to lightly wrap around the burlap to help hold it in place.If the plant also needs mulching to prevent heaving, do it after you finish wrapping it. Remove the wrapping in the Spring a couple weeks before your local last frost date.
If you get frost, winds, or ice storms infrequently, you can also throw an old sheet or quilt over endangered plants the night before a storm or freeze is anticipated. Remove the cover as soon as the threat is gone, however, so the plant does not get too warm.
Cloche Plants to Control Temperatures
In the vegetable garden, you can keep growing cool-season plants into Winter or protect overwintering plants by covering entire beds with a climate-control cover. The felted row covers often used for insect protection in Spring and Summer can also be purchased in heavier weights for Winter, sometimes called "quilts."
These fabrics can be laid over the bed and secured with ground staples or you can set wire or plastic hoops in the ground and then lay the fabric on the hoops and secure the fabric with clothespins, special clips, or anything else that will survive the Winter.
If you have old sheets or blankets you want to recycle, you can use these, too. If a big freeze is expected, throw the old bed quilts over the row covers for temporary extra protection. If you are storing root crops in the soil for the winter, a heavy mulch of straw or evergreen bows can keep the ground from freezing to deeply to allow for harvesting.
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