Polk County Master Gardeners
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Winterize Your Garden
Perhaps the most important thing you could have done to prepare your plants
for winter was to select varieties that are hardy in our part of Arkansas - then
they will pretty much take care of themselves. As the days grow shorter and the
temperature drops, they begin to slow their growth and enter a dormant state for
the winter. But if, like me, you can’t resist the ones that are marginal, you
may want to help them along a bit.
One of the first steps is to clean up your beds by removing annuals that are
spent and adding them to your compost pile. Remove any diseased or
insect-damaged material from perennials and shrubs. If you want to transplant
some shrubs, now is the time. Just be sure to prepare the new site by adding
soil amendments, dig as large a root ball as you can, and get it into the new
site quickly so the roots do not dry. Water it in thoroughly. You may need to
prune it if there has been much loss of root material so that the remaining
roots can support the foliage.
You can still move and divide spring-blooming bulbs. Again, prepare the new
bed thoroughly, cut back the foliage to about 6 inches, divide the bulbs or
rhizomes, and get them back into the soil promptly.
For those marginal plants you could not resist (rosemary and pineapple sage
are the ones I will be pampering this winter), try a generous mulch. I plan to
cut my semi-tender plants back enough that I can pretty well cover them with
shredded leaves. I may even go so far as to cover the plant, mulch and all, with
a plastic sheet when really hard freezes are predicted. I will have to remember,
though, to remove it as the weather warms up after the freeze.
All the shrubs will benefit from a mulch cover to help conserve moisture and
moderate the temperature changes. Shredded leaves are available in quantity this
time of year. If they will not all fit in the compost piles, try putting them
around your shrubs. They will decay in time and gradually improve the soil. If
you are concerned with their blowing away, try a light cover of wood chips over
the leaves to hold them in place.
And then settle back and enjoy a gardening book in front of the fire with a
good conscience - you have done all you can for your garden and it will repay you
in the spring.
By Barbara M. Tobias
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