Getting Ready for Snow

By Jos Van Hage

 
It is hard to believe that summer is over and we are starting the first week of Fall. 

This is a busy time of year for gardeners as they put their garden to bed and prepare trees, shrubs, and other plants for winter. 

Plants such as geraniums, and fuschias, can be brought indoors to finish blooming and then cut back half way and placed in a cool (10 Celsius) dark area such as a cool room or heated garage and watered minimally till February. 

Other plants such as ‘Spikes’ (Dracaena), and Patio trees are also brought indoors before the killing frost and stored in a cool (10 Celsius) space so that they can have a rest over the winter. 

It is important to make sure that plants are pest, and disease free before bringing them inside as you do not want to bring in unwanted problems to your other indoor tropical plants.

Newly planted or fragile trees should be staked, as you do not want them to be damaged by strong winds. Use a 3-5 foot metal tree stake and place it 12-18 inches into the soil 4-6 inches away from the trees main trunk. Secure the tree to the stake using tree rope, jute, or an old garden hose, do not use wire or plastic rope as this will cut into the tree. Mice can be a real problem over the winter and cause a lot of damage. 

Protect trees from rodents eating the bark by wrapping the tree trunk with a mouse guard. A mouse guard is an expandable white plastic wrap that encases the trunk of the tree preventing anything from eating under it. For best results, cover the first 3-4 feet from the ground up. Cedar trees can be wrapped with twine or burlap to prevent heavy snow loads breaking or bending the branches. 

Wrap dwarf Alberta spruce with burlap as this well prevent winter damage. Roses, azaleas, and rhododendron should be given extra protection by either wrapping them in burlap or putting a Styrofoam hut over them. Before winterizing roses cut back half of the new growth which makes it easier to winterize, and next spring the fine touch pruning is done.

Perennials such as peonies, irises, and lilies can be dug up and moved in the next few days but it is getting late in the season to do this. 

All perennials are cut back to 6 inches above ground level. Perennials are not cut down to the ground as you want snow to be caught in the left over stubble which gives the plant extra winter protection. For newly planted or soft perennials (those that are zone 4 or higher) give them extra mulch of peat moss, wood chips or disease free leaves as they head into the winter. 

If peonies were bothered by blight this past summer cut back the foliage to ground level and discard of it. Never place any diseased leaves or parts of plants in compost, as you do not want disease to spread to other parts of the garden.

In the vegetable garden strawberries can have an extra mulch of peat moss which not only helps them get through the winter but in spring will make the soil more acidic by lowering the pH which is what strawberries like. N

ow is also the time to harvest the produce from the vegetable garden and clean up any debris. Keep up on the weeding as any weed that is pulled out now will save having to pull out an even bigger one next spring or the hundreds of little seedling weeds that one mature weed can produce.

-Jos

Jos Van Hage opwns three Art Knapp's Garden Centers in the Prince George area
-Highway 97 North
-Highway 97 South @ the Old Cariboo Highway
-Highway 16 West

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