During the cold season, many animals fall into hibernation. Peace also returns to gardens and balconies in winter. However, you should be prepared so that plants and lawns can grow again next year. What precautions should garden owners take? What is the best way to protect potted and bedding plants from the cold?
When the days become shorter and animals retreat to hibernate, the flora also falls into its well-deserved Sleeping Beauty sleep. To ensure that beds, shrubs and perennials bloom again in spring, garden owners should protect them from the harsh weather. Sustainable protective measures can also be taken with the remnants of autumn – leaves, branches and twigs.
Protection from sun and wind
In fact, it’s often not the cold that’s a problem for plants: in winter, the main things that affect them are sun, wind and strong temperature fluctuations. If the sun shines more strongly during frost, the light stimulates the growth of plants, thereby consuming water and nutrients. However, since the ground is frozen, the roots cannot absorb any additional water and so dry out and die. To protect plants from the winter sun, it is recommended to cover them with fleece or wrap them with pasture mats. Evergreen plants in particular benefit from this.
To protect plants from wind, they should be placed in a corner protected from the wind if possible. Otherwise, hobby gardeners can help with foil that they attach against the wind side. However, the plants should not be completely wrapped in foil, otherwise a humid climate will be created that promotes fungal infections. When there are temperature fluctuations, dark planters can become very hot, while the shaded side remains frozen – this causes part of the root to heat up. It can help to wrap the pot with jute or place it in a jute bag and fill the gaps with leaves. Placing the pot on wood or Styrofoam provides additional insulation from heat and cold.
Special protection for roses, begonias and co
For most plants, these protective measures are enough to get them through the winter well. But some require a little more special preparation. For roses, broken and diseased shoots should be cut off. In addition, it is recommended to protect the grafting area on the lower part of the rose with accumulated soil or bark mulch or, for tall roses, with a paper bag.
Summer-flowering bulbous flowers such as begonias, dahlias or gladioli should be dug out of their bed after the first frost at the latest and cut off about ten centimeters above the root. The tubers are best stored in a dark, dry, cool place in a box lined with straw or newspaper. If the summer bloomers grow in a pot, it is sufficient to place the pot in a dark, cool place without digging up the tubers.
Useful garden waste
Garden owners should also remove leaves from lawns and evergreen shrubs before winter. Otherwise the lawn could rot and the perennials could suffer from the weight. The leaves can then be reused elsewhere: on beds and under hedges, a layer of leaves can protect against cold and harsh weather. Cuttings and dead wood can be piled up in a pile of brushwood and also covered with leaves. Hedgehogs find a suitable place to hibernate there, but other animals such as toads and lizards also find shelter between the branches.
To ensure that the garden is maintained successfully next year, hobby gardeners should also empty watering cans and rain barrels to protect them from bursting due to frost, and turn off the water in garden pipes.