How to prepare your garden for winter? How to care for your garden in winter? Many people who are not indifferent to their garden ask themselves that. Despite the fact that all traditional cultures can easily adapt themselves to the onset of cold weather, they also need outside help.
Winters can be the most unpredictable, so for easy adaptation of plants, you need to properly approach their care. A favorable wintering of the garden depends on the activities carried out in the fall for easy adaptation.
In order to prepare the garden for the winter period, a number of procedures should be performed in the fall. Consider below what activities you need to perform.
Harvesting leaves in the garden
The remaining pests in the garden can serve as a good breeding ground for the development of diseases, as well as the reproduction of pests that can cause a negative impact on growing crops.
Fallen leaves are an ideal wintering place for many pests and bacteria. Therefore, you should prepare the garden for the winter as soon as possible and get rid of its leaves, be it the leaves of shrubs, trees, or flowers.
What to do with the harved leaves and where to do it
Here are some tips:
- you can collect foliage in one compost pile for faster disposal;
- foliage can be used to mulch the soil of flower crops to protect it in winter;
- if foliage should be infested with pests, get rid of it as soon as possible. Burning or taking out of the garden are ideal solutions in this case.
Removing from dropped plant remains
Not only the fallen leaves but also the fruits can harm the soil of the garden. Fallen fruits can cause fungal infections in the soil. The fungal disease moniliasis is one of the most common soil diseases, which can not only adversely affect it but also completely destroy the future harvest.
But not only fallen fruits must be removed from the garden: carefully examine the trees and rid them of already unusable fruits.
Unlike foliage, fruits are not recommended to be piled up to rot, much less left in the garden. A deep hole will be a harmless way to get rid of them. A dug hole can be filled with fruit only 20-30 centimeters.
Preparation of conifers
All conifers and shrubs require special preparation to cope with winter conditions. Snow falling on the needles can damage and break off future shoots of plants, so even in the fall, you need to pull off the branches of coniferous plants with a strong rope (twine) as much as possible, fixing them well. This will make it easier to shake off the snow from such plants if necessary.
Prevention of diseases of the garden
Plant care in the winter garden also takes place. After harvesting the fallen leaves, it is recommended to treat the surface of the garden and all growing shrubs with fungicidal preparations.
As such means, solutions of copper sulfate (at a dosage of 0.3 kg per 10 liters) and urea solutions (at a dosage of 0.5 kg per 10 liters) are used. It is recommended to process not only the shrubs themselves but also in order to prevent the surface area of the garden.
Soil opening
By loosening the soil around shrubs and flowers, you can also get rid of the pests and bacteria that live in it. The causes of vulnerabilities on the soil surface.
Loosening of the soil around growing trees should be to a depth of about 20 centimeters, around shrubs – by 10 centimeters, around flowering plants – by 7 centimeters. Special care should be taken to carry out computer damage to damaged plant systems.
Elimination of vegetation
Not only fallen leaves and fruits but also the remains of plants and shrubs should be removed from the surface of the garden. Cut grass, dry branches, lichens, dead plant remains. It is recommended to burn such unsuitable vegetation.
Care of the structure and soil quality of the garden
It is precisely the ennobling of the garden that follows. So, the improvement of the structure of heavy soil should be carried out at the beginning of autumn. For these purposes, sand, humus, compost are laid on the surface of the soil, and after they are dug together with the soil to the depth of one shovel bayonet. The addition of such substances is carried out one bucket per square meter.
On too light and soil, compost and humus should be added, and then digging should be reported. When digging, minerals and fertilizers should be added to normal, sufficiently fertile soil in a proportion of 1.5 buckets per square meter.
It should be noted that if the soil is normal and does not require digging and improving its structure, then processing should not be in vain. Indeed, in its process, you can damage the soil and cause harmful microflora in it.
If the digging process has nevertheless begun, then you should at least not break up large clods of earth and not turn them over.
Thus, preparing a garden for winter requires a lot of trouble. It is enough to take care of plants and trees on time, then there will be no problems.
Moisture and mulching
Another important condition for the nutrition of the soil is the sufficient presence of moisture in it. Therefore, in late autumn, it should be moistened. This will help prevent drying out of soil, shrubs, and trees, protect root systems from frost damage and increase overall frost resistance.
It is most effective to water before the onset of the first frost, but after cleaning the garden from fallen leaves.
One shrub and one young tree require about 3-4 buckets of water, one adult tree requires about 5 buckets.
It is very important to water gradually, while waiting for the water to be absorbed into the soil. In this case, the water temperature should be 5 degrees higher than the atmospheric air. After watering, you must immediately mulch with peat, humus, or compost.
Preparing inventory for the next season
The inventory should also not be left unattended. Before removing it, you must:
- clean off dirt and soil residues;
- rinse as necessary;
- sharpen blunt elements;
- to carry out disinfection.
Preparing trees and shrubs for winter
How to preserve trees in winter so that they successfully survive the frosts and begin to actively develop in the next period? Favorable wintering of trees in the garden requires special responsibility. Caring for trees before winter includes the following activities:
- Removing the trapping rings. For the winter, all previously installed trapping belts or rings should be removed from the trees. Disposable appliances should be burned immediately, reusable appliances should be washed and put away in a protected place before the next harvest period.
- Pruning fruit trees. Pruning trees and shrubs should be done even before the first frost for sanitary purposes. If pruning is performed during frosts, then such an event will cause a lot of damage to the trees because the cold negatively affects the wood, it becomes more fragile and susceptible to damage. For trees and shrubs for the winter, all dry, dead branches, shoots prone to diseases and pests, as well as broken branches should be removed. Intact branches growing inward or crossing and tangling with each other are also pruned. The resulting sections should be treated with a fungicide solution to prevent fungal diseases.
- Removal of dry bark and lichens. It is these areas that are “home” for pests, so if found, you should get rid of them as soon as possible. Removal should be done with a wooden scraper.
- Whitewashing process. Whitewashing protects trees from severe temperature changes and pests – factors that can lead to adverse consequences for the tree. The procedure is the final stage in preparing the tree for winter. It should be whitewashed only after removing the trapping rings, trimming shrubs, and ridding the soil and plants of unnecessary dead bark and lichens. Whitewashing is usually done on the entire lower part of the tree from the very surface of the ground. A mixture of copper sulfate, lime, and water is used as a material. For a more durable whitewash, it is recommended to add wood glue.
- Protection against rodents. Young plants are most susceptible to rodents. To protect them from mice, hares and other rodents, it is recommended to protect the plant with a special net purchased from the store. Alternatively, you can protect the tree trunk by making a do-it-yourself plastic bottle casing. It is enough to cut off the neck and bottom of the bottle and make a vertical cut along its entire length in order to put the bottle on the barrel, and then fix it tightly. You can also use several of these designs if the tree trunk is long.
- Top dressing for the winter. A properly structured feeding process helps to make plants more frost-resistant, strong, and most importantly, helps to achieve a better harvest in the next period. Top dressing is usually carried out using phosphate-potassium fertilizers without the addition of nitrogen. It is important to apply the substances immediately after loosening the soil in a dry form. As such fertilizers, potassium superphosphate, and potassium sulfate or potassium monophosphate can be used.
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Final words
Thus, by observing all the necessary principles of care, you can achieve a blooming, healthy, and growing garden and a rich harvest. Winter garden maintenance is a very important task for every gardener!
