Protecting your garden through winter
It's important that we take a few steps to ensure our plants will make it through winter without much, or any, damage. • Know your plants - Make sure you know which plants are not hardy in our zone and be ready to cover them or bring them inside. o At, or just below 40 degrees, tender plants such as citrus should be moved indoors. If you want to keep your basil or other tender herbs awhile longer, bring them inside as well. o When the temps are close to freezing, you may want to cover your budding or blooming plants such as camellias, snapdragons, alyssum etc in order to prevent damage to the flowers. At that temp, it won’t kill the plants, but may cause some buds or blooms to drop. o When the temps drop into the 20’s, you can cover your budding vegetables such as broccoli or cauliflower, to prevent ‘burning’ on the bud and will keep the cauliflower white instead of a dingy brown. • Water your landscape during winter! – The roots are still growing all through winter so it’s important that we still provide our plants with adequate moisture. A deep drink of water for potted plants, or those in the ground, will actually protect the roots from freeze damage. The water fills in the air space and acts as an insulator. The water also plumps up the plant’s cells which creates a sturdier, healthier plant. If we have not received moisture in a given week during winter, give your landscape drink. • Mulch, Mulch, Mulch – You should always have about 2†of native cedar or hardwood mulch around your garden. There should never be bare soil, as in nature. Mulch is a great soil temperature and moisture regulator (in summer too!) and impedes weed growth.
Let’s hope we don’t have a winter as severe as the last one, but we’ll all be prepared to help our garden through it.
_________________ Sandi Texas Certified Nursery Professional Texas Master Naturalist Organic gardener Tree-Hugger Native Texan
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