One of the biggest disappointments in the winter garden is to lose a valued piece of garden art or a beautiful container to freeze damage. If any water is able to work itself into the concrete or wood of your garden art, a freeze could cause the water to expand and crack your work of art. The same is true of terra-cotta and glazed containers. You’ll not only lose the pot when it explodes but you might also lose the plant within by exposing its roots to freezing weather.

The easiest solution when it comes to containers is to use only pots guaranteed to be frost hardy outdoors in winter and move the rest inside under cover.

If your garden art is too big to move easily, the next best alternative is to cover it with waterproof tarps. Admittedly having a bunch of blue tarps in your garden can look just a bit tacky, so if your partner won’t go along with that idea, the only viable alternative is to apply a sealant such as Thompson’s WaterSeal. Make sure you cover every nook and cranny where water could possibly penetrate.

Unfortunately, you’ll know if you failed when your artwork self-destructs.

Keep your

drains clear

In heavy fall rains, clogged storm drains can result in flooded streets, traffic problems, difficult conditions for bicyclists and walkers, and increased pollutants in streams and waterways. It could even cause costly flooding in homes. Do your part to prevent flooding by regularly sweeping up leaves and debris that accumulate along curbs.

At the same time, keep an eye on storm drains and remove leaves whenever they form a mat that could clog the drain. While you’re at it, don’t forget to rake leaves off the stairway to your basement and to keep the drain at the bottom clear of debris.

As I found out, the only thing worse than being awakened in the middle of the night by a wet paw in the face is the sudden realization that my pooch couldn’t get out the doggy door at the bottom of the stairway because water was rushing in through it!

Give tubers

a warm umbrella

I don’t know about you, but I just don’t have time to dig the gazillions of semi-hardy bulbs and tubers of dahlias, gladiolus, and colored calla lilies out of my garden for winter storage. Instead I cover the cut stems and underground root structures with evergreen fern fronds cut from our native sword fern (Polystichum munitum).

Don’t worry: Removing the fronds from these rock-tough ferns won’t hurt them. After you cut the stems of the tuberous plants as close to the ground as possible, cover the stems and the rootstocks at least 6 inches deep with the fronds.

Put a rock on top to keep the fronds from flying away. The fronds are great insulators, but even more importantly, they act as tiny umbrellas and prevent water from penetrating the cut stems or rotting the underground tubers or bulbs.

There are risks to using this strategy. Although it’s been generally successful for me over the years, I have lost some prized plants in record cold or horribly wet winters. When I think about how much time and work it saved me over the years, however, it seems worth the risk.

Ciscoe Morris: ciscoe@ciscoe.com; “Gardening with Ciscoe” airs at 10 a.m. Saturdays on KING-TV.