Last time I wrote about changing your watering schedules and checking your irrigation systems for the fast-approaching winter weather. There are a lot of other things to consider for winterizing your landscape to help minimize potential damage. And remember, damage can come from natural and man-made causes.
To truly winterize your yard, much of it should be considered in the initial planning stages of the landscape so that many of the problems can be avoided. Preventive measures imple mented in the fall also can greatly reduce winter damage. “What is susceptible to winter damage?” you might ask: Just about everything — plants, paving, steps and stairs, furnishings, plumbing and irrigation. Some of the causes of winter damage include windburn, freezing, heaving, ice, snow and flooding. Windburn dries out leaf tissue causing brown or black discoloration of the leaves facing the windward side. Evergreen plants with large leaves are the most susceptible. Think about selecting deciduous plants (those that lose all of their leaves at once) or plants with smaller leaves or needles to help reduce windburn damage. Plants that are marginally cold-hardy, or not hardy at all, are subject to freezing and frost damage. Know your plant materials and avoid using landscape plants that cannot take the High Desert’s cold winters. I have seen the temperature as low as 6 degrees and down into the teens numerous times. Also, don’t encourage new growth toward the onset of winter because the tender new leaves can easily freeze. Fully hydrated cacti and succulents can suffer cold damage as well. Water expands when it freezes, which can cause fully hydrated plant cells to burst. I stop watering my cacti and other succulents around the beginning of November and start watering again in April or so. The only water they get during this time is what Mother Nature provides. This allows the cacti and succulents to be slightly dehydrated. Heaving can affect bulbs and perennials as the soil they are planted in repeatedly thaws and freezes. Heaving can eventually expose the roots to drying wind and kill the plant. Encouraging deep rooting can greatly reduce heaving. Regularly mulching your planting beds can help minimize the temperature changes in the soil — keeping the planting beds warmer in winter and cooler in summer.
Ice and snow can have effects on not only the plants but on hardscape as well. The weight of ice and snow can easily break twigs and branches. Evergreens can hold more snow and ice, thus being more prone to damage from the weight.
Try to remove the snow if it can be done safely by using a light-weight kitchen broom. Regular pruning or thinning can help reduce the damage. Also, snow falling from a roof onto plants can seriously damage or kill a plant. Avoid placing plants right under the roof’s edge.
The hardscape can be affected by water seeping into cracks and then freezing and thawing, eventually making the cracks bigger. Prior to winter, seal cracks in concrete and pavers
— ask your local home improvement center for recommended products.
Salting to melt ice and snow can be damaging to paving and concrete, causing it to crumble — and it is extremely toxic to plants. To help avoid icy hazards, keep irrigation water off paved surfaces, shovel snow from walkways and break up ice accumulations when possible.
Flooding can occur via too much rain or through damage from freezing plumbing and irrigation systems. Cover exposed pipes, manifolds, faucets and so forth with insulation to help prevent breakage. Avoid placing plants in low areas of your yard where water might accumulate during a heavy rainstorm. Other things to consider when winterizing your property include cleaning and inspecting rain gutters and removing any debris that interferes with natural drainage from paths, slopes and drainage systems. This is also a good time to rake up all of those fallen leaves and add them to your compost pile, and to make sure there are no tree branches creating a fire hazard near chimneys.
HAPPY GARDENING!
High Desert resident Micki Brown is a droughttolerant plant specialist with an M.S. in plant science. Send her questions to be answered in the column at HorticultureHelp@aol.com.
Speak Your Mind