Winterize Your Yard
Posted on October 31, 2010 by bob in Yard 'N Garden
Crisp, cool mornings remind us fall is in the air and winter is coming. In the garden our attention turns to doing the right things to prepare for cold weather. Like humans, plants like a warm blanket to protect them from the cold.
This blanket needs to be a mulch at least four inches deep. Leaves may be mulched, spread on the soil, and topped off with pine straw. If you don’t have leaves in your yard, using only pine straw mulch is fine.
Most people do not put pine straw deep enough and the soil dries out quickly. The formula to get the correct amount of pine straw is to take the square footage of the area and divide by 30. This gives you the number of bales needed.You may be shocked because you have never bought this much straw in the past. Start correcting this now, so your plants are well-protected and won’t dry out in winter or in summer. Mulch will also keep your beds from having so many weeds.
Where can you get the best pine straw for the best price? Easy. The best pine straw, at the best price, is what you rake from under pine trees. Since most of us don’t have a pine forest, we must purchase our straw. The disappointing news is that there is no industry standard for the size or weight of a bale of pine straw.
The big box stores have straw for the lowest price. Their weight may allow you to carry out two bales at a time. On the other hand, if you go to a landscape supplier the bales are heavier and larger and you may only be able to tote one.
Not all bales are equal, so be a good consumer and check out size, quality, and costs. Not all pine straw is the same quality, either!
Some straw harvested from last year may have been sitting in a trailer since then, enduring the hot summer heat. By now it is dried out and off-color. Fresh straw is flexible and more red in color. The long needle straw brings the highest price. As with all things, you get what you pay for.
I personally like the look of red long needles, so I use some of my pine straw tricks. I put down the cheaper straw to hold the moisture, etc. on the bottom. Then I top the beds off with the expensive longer needled straw. Only you will know the bottom two-thirds of the mulch is not the long needle straw. The positive results are the same!
Watering in the winter is another practice most people neglect.
Plants need to be full of moisture to winter well and keep from drying out. Nurseries turn on their sprinkler systems when freezing temperatures are forecast, watering their plants well so they will survive.
Last winter many plants were lost due to long spells of low temperatures. When spring arrived folks began calling me, asking, “Why did I lose so many plants?” They never associated it with a lack of watering. If weeks go by without rain, turn on your sprinklers. By covering your plants with a blanket of water – which may freeze – the plants are actually protected. Think about it. Temperatures do not go below freezing under that ice.
Check your shrub rootballs to make sure they are protected from the weather. Another housekeeping chore in the fall is cleaning beds out from spent annuals and bulbs. Caladium bulbs can be dug up and saved for next year. Prune the leaves off and dust the bulbs with Sevin and store them in a dry place. Keep them from freezing, which means don’t store them in the garden shed. The top of a closet in the house works well. When spring comes, you’ll already have a project for a beautiful spring day.
So go out to the garden to measure your beds and buy pine straw for your next weekend garden project. By putting your garden to bed this fall, you’re helping your plants stay warm and safe all winter.
Ethel Dozier Boykin, a Montgomery native, is a landscape and design consultant who owns “art in the garden.” She may be reached at 334-395-5949, or by email at etheldozierboykin@yahoo.com.
