Plants
   Vines
   Trees
   Shrubs
   Herbaceous perennials  

 Information
   Planting instructions
   Planting instr. (acid)
   Printable plant list
   Newsletter archive
   Ask the Chuckster

 Driving directions

 Chuck’s courses
 and consulting

 Driving directions

Ask the Chuckster...
Preparing for winter

How do I prepare my useful plants for winter?

Good question.  All the signs are pointing toward a colder, temperature wise, winter than we’ve seen in a while. The farmer’s almanac is predicting colder temps with several Alberta clippers (super cold and windy) in store for us this winter.  I don’t think we’ll see as much snow as last winter, as we seem to be in a dryer phase now.  Expect cold and warm cycles, rather than the extended cold we had last winter.

That said, mulch all your woodies and perennials well with a fresh 2-3” deep layer of your favorite mulching material out to their drip zone, being sure to keep the mulch 6” away from the trunks of your fruit trees to prevent borers and rodent damage over the winter. If you have low mineral soils, as many of us do, send in a soil test now and apply any needed soil amendments before mulching. These amendments could include earthworm castings, agricultural lime, rock or colloidal phosphate, greensand, granite dust or quarry screenings, seahumic (granular seaweed and humates), and liquid seaweed soil drenches.  My favorite seaweed product is Natures NOG, available from Fifth Season Garden Supply, Useful Plants, or the manufacturer, Senn, Senn, and Senn in Clemson, SC.  Seaweed will help plants handle  stress and improve winter hardiness when applied in the fall or early winter. Don’t use seaweed concentrates with fish emulsion this time of year or you risk producing new growth when we want plants going dormant for the winter. 

To avoid winter rodent damage to your trees, you can make cylinders out of ¼" mesh hardware cloth 1-2’ high and surround the base trunks of your trees from just below ground level with these cages for the winter.

We’ll discuss winter protection for less stem hardy plants in our November newsletter.  The nursery should have a video for you in early November showing you several methods for winter protecting figs and other sensitive plants.

What about pruning this time of year?

I’d only do limited corrective pruning this time of year.  Save your winter pruning till the worst of the cold is over, say late February or early March.  Refer to past UPN newsletters and videos for more pruning details.  Never winter or spring prune dogwoods such as Kousa dogwood or Cornelian Cherries or they’ll bleed from the pruning cuts when the sap rises.

What about fertilizing when fall or winter planting?

Definitely don’t give your plants any nitrogen this time of year. They need to stop growing now and be preparing to hunker down for winter.  Since this is such a great planting time that you really shouldn’t miss,  you’ll need to amend our growing season planting instructions to avoid pushing them into growth during a warm spell this fall.   In a nutshell this is what I’d recommend as a planting fertilizer blend this fall: 

• Seaumic granular seaweed and humates
• Natures NOG liquid seaweed/humate soil drench at planting

Mix all the powdered or granular ingredients into the soil dug and mixed for the plant hole so that the backfill will have these nutrients evenly distributed.  Also surface apply the rock powders to the area around the plant that extends beyond the planting hole.   This is the future root zone.

There are always exceptions.  Particularly in the case of plants that require well drained soil,  blueberries and other acid loving plants, or really bad soil problems.  See our planting videos and planting instructions for the details on planting blueberries.