How to Prepare for Winter and Winterize Your Yard

The start of the fall season can be a good time to start preparing your yard or landscaping for the winter. The winterization process can vary depending on the setup of your yard and the weather in your area, but there are important steps you can take to ensure you’re prepared. 

As winter approaches, in preparation for the upcoming cold weather, plants will gradually retain less moisture. When the water inside of a plant freezes, and changes from a liquid to a solid, it expands and turns into ice crystals. If plants have excess water, the expansion of these ice crystals can damage plant stems and roots. And so plants will naturally decrease their water levels, to prevent this from happening. This freezing process is also what causes leaves to wither and eventually fall off as the weather begins to change. With the arrival of cold and freezing night time temperatures, some plants and trees may even see their leaves wither and dry out overnight. 

The winter can be a challenging time for plants and trees, but there are different steps you can take to stay prepared.

Protect Vulnerable Trees and Saplings Against Sunscald: Sunscald is a process that occurs when a tree’s trunk is heated by the daytime sun, but then cracks from freezing temperatures that come with night time. Younger trees, such as nursery trees or saplings, are more vulnerable to sunscald since their trunks aren’t as developed yet. Sunscald can cause premature damage for trees, and it can make it easier for pests or disease to harm the trees. In order to protect them, you can buy tree wrap, and wrap it around the trunk of the tree to give it more insulation, and help it defend against sunscald. 

Insulate Garden Beds in Your Yard: There are steps that you can take to winterize garden beds, shrubs, and potted plants as well. Like trees, these plants can also be vulnerable to rapid drops in temperature, and there are steps you can take to protect them. For garden beds, you can add an insulating layer of garden soil mixed with manure or compost. How much of the mixture you need will depend on the size and type of plants you own. Generally speaking, adding 6 to 12 inches of the mixture to your garden beds is likely enough to provide insulation. Factors such as temperature extremes and the cold resistance of your plants will influence how much of the mixture you need. 

Try To Mitigate Frost Heave: Frost heave is a damaging process that occurs when uninsulated soil rapidly contracts and expands, causing plant roots to rupture. Shallow rooted plants, such as small flowers, basil, and strawberries, can be vulnerable to frost heave since their roots do not reach as deeply into the ground. Mulching can be a good strategy to prevent frost heave from occurring, since it can provide more insulation. By adding an additional layer of mulch, of approx. 4 to 8 inches, around these plants, you can prevent rapid temperature changes from occurring in your yard’s dirt. 

Consider Adding Burlap Wraps to Shrubs: For areas in the United States that have particularly harsh or windy winters, it may be necessary to add burlap wraps, secured by wire, to shrubs you want to protect. These wraps can provide an added layer of protection against wind and other harsh weather, by cutting the wind and adding further insulation. 

Avoid Fertilizing Late in the Fall Season: Lastly, one more tip to help winterize your yards or garden is to stop fertilizing late in the season. While fertilization can provide plants with important nutrients and encourage new growth, it might be better (and more economical) to save your fertilizer and wait until the next growing season. Newer growth from plants is generally more tender and vulnerable than the more mature parts of the plant. This new growth may make a plant more susceptible to some of the harsh winter phenomena discussed in this article. By stopping fertilization in the late summer or early fall, you can limit the damage to the new, vulnerable growth that occurs with your yard’s plants. 

Winterizing your landscape or garden can be a difficult transition to navigate, but the fall can present a good opportunity to start transitioning your yard for the winter season. There are many steps you can take to better protect your plants from cold and freezing weather.