In the last column, I addressed the trials and tribulations of being the mom of a 16-year-old young woman. While, the disagreements have subsided, we are now in the process of exploring college options. A road trip is planned to South Bend and West Lafayette, Indiana, a weekend getaway to College Station, Texas is scheduled, and a we will be attending yet another seminar at Elgin Community College regarding College Preparedness. I question whether all of the time spent exploring options is really worth it. She is going to college, but what exactly will her future hold? It is a fine balance between being prepared for the future and predicting it.
While listening to the radio, over the past several weeks, I have heard many conversations regarding this upcoming winter. The big question is “Will this winter be similar to last winter?” While it seems hard to imagine that we will have extremely low temperatures, combined with well above average snow fall amounts, this winter could be difficult on us and our plants. While we can’t accurately predict the weather this winter, it is wise to prepare our plants for it. Here are several things that you should consider doing this fall, to give your plants the best chance of successfully overwintering.
1. Plants will benefit from a thorough watering well into the fall. The soil should be moist at least 2 inches deep up until it freezes. Water generously until the ground freezes. Plants can suffer from dehydration during the winter.
2. Rake or pick up as many leaves as possible. Fungal spores can overwinter on dead leaves.
3. Mulch insulates roots throughout the winter. A 2-3 inch covering of mulch helps regulate the soil temperature and therefore protects the plants. Mulch will also help to retain moisture in the ground.
4. Protect your roses. Extra mulch around the base of the plants will help insulate the plants from the cold temperatures. Make sure to rake any excess mulch away from plants in the early spring.
5. Voles do quite a bit of damage to the roots of grass during the winter. Consider applying a Vole deterrent product to your lawn.
6. Wrap young shade trees with a tree wrap. Maples and other shade trees can be susceptible to Frost Cracking. This is a vertical split that occurs usually on the west or south side of the trunk. The tree wrap helps to insulate the trunk and reduce the likelihood of frost cracking occurring.
7. Core-aerating your lawn in the fall has many positive effects. It reduces soil compaction and enhances water and fertilizer absorption.
8. Apply a winterizer lawn fertilizer. According to David Robson, University of Illinois Extension horticulture educator “This may be the most important fertilizer you apply to your lawn-especially if you’ve never applied one.”
9. Protect your plants from rabbits. Rabbits spend the winter eating vegetation outdoors. Consider applying a liquid or granular animal repellent product around your shrubs.
10. Extend your downspouts so that the water runs off into the lawn, not into your planting beds. The most common downspout extension that I see is a plastic, accordion style extension. Installing these on your downspouts will help to minimize the erosion in your planting beds.
11. Spray an anti-dessicant spray on your evergreen trees and shrubs. Evergreen plants continue to lose water through their needles throughout the winter. This process is called transpiration. Anti-dessicant sprays work to provide a covering on the needles to slow down the water loss.
Will preparing our plants and lawn for winter be in vain? Will Mother Nature provide adequate precipitation? Will the rabbits feed somewhere else? Will the temperatures be kind to our roses? Although, we don’t know the answer to those questions, as the saying goes, “It is better to be safe than sorry.”
Kathleen Carr is the owner of The Growing Scene, Inc., a garden center and landscaping company. She can be reached by calling 815-923-7322 or tgsinc12@msn.com. Have a gardening question? Please contact her. She may address it in an upcoming column.
