Preparing Your Garden for Winter – A Fall Checklist

Preparing your garden for the long winters is not a difficult task and can be done efficiently in the course of a single afternoon. Winterizing your garden is about cleaning, mulching and protecting. While older trees and shrubs develop winter hardiness for the on-coming season and need only to be mulched, younger plants need to be protected using paints, burlap covers and wire mesh guards. Here is a checklist to ensure proper and effective winterizing of your garden and healthy blossoms next spring.

1. Clear away all the summer mulch.

2. Clear away all the decomposed plant material that will not be used for mulching. This includes old leaves and stems that may attract insects and diseased or infested plant material.

3. Plant Evergreens during mid-august to early September to ensure that they root well before winter sets in.

4. Plant Spring Bulbs early in Fall to allow for root development before frost which in turn ensures healthy flowers in spring.

5. Spread four inches of fresh mulch to keep soil from freezing and thawing during winter. Keep the mulch thickness to only three inches around trunks or it may cause rotting.

6. Set up wire mesh guards for tree trunks and young trees to protect them for rodents. Push 1 or 2 inches of the mesh guard into the ground to prevent burrowing underneath.

7. Prepare to keep deer away. Use permanent or temporary fencing or spray homemade or commercial resistant or wrap plants with deer mesh.

8. Avoid sunscald in young trees by painting their trunks with a mixture of white latex paint and water in the proportion of one-to-one.

9. Protect evergreens from the winter sun by setting up burlap or cloth screens or by spraying anti-desiccants on them.

10. Protect tree trunks of young trees from bark-splitting by wrapping the trunks with commercial tree wrap paper or burlap.