Preparing Flower Beds For Winter. Digging, Pruning, Cleaning, Sheltering. Photo

2023 Author: Ava Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 07:13

From the forthcoming work front in the fall, the preparation of flower beds is often excluded as optional or not so important. But this is still a "key item" in the calendar of every gardener, just as important as work in the vegetable garden or orchard. The preparation of beds, flower beds and other lush-colored compositions takes a lot of time. And in the process of waiting for winter, timely loosening of the soil, and pruning, and pre-winter wrapping are important. If you lose sight of these important nuances and are too lazy to work with plants and soil, you can cause serious damage to your favorite flower beds.

Digging non-wintering plants

Preparations for the winter of all favorite flower beds and rabatki begin when it comes time to remove seasonal soloists from them. Heat-loving crops that do not tolerate frost, but belong to perennial plants (or letniki that plan to use as mother bushes for grafting), must be removed from all ensembles even before the frost period. Most efforts are usually spent on gladioli, dahlias, Indian cannes and other bulbous tubers. Gladioli are dug on the eve of frost, dahlias - right after the first frost, but in any case, your not frost-resistant bulbous tuber should not face severe frosts in the soil. Keep in mind that the plants will still need to be dried in the fresh air, treated with a solution of potassium permanganate or fungicide and stored indoors, and this will also take time. In order not to get confused and not to be mistaken with the timing, make a schedule for digging and carrying crops.

Pruning plants and cleaning the flower garden

Like any other garden object (both purely economic and decorative), every flower garden or mixborder needs careful cleaning in anticipation of winter. Autumn is not only a time for fantastic transformations of crowns and unexpectedly bright colors, but also leaf fall, wilting, drying. And plants that gradually prepare for winter and shed their foliage leave behind a lot of debris. And the plant waste accumulated during the active season from the flower garden also needs to be removed on time.

But it is better to start preparing for the winter in terms of sanitary cleaning of flower beds and flower beds with pruning: this way you do not have to do the same work twice. Today it is often mentioned that only perennials, which have faded later than others, autumn species, need pruning in the fall. But it’s not that simple. For each plant, it is worth checking the individual recommendations. Roses need mandatory pruning for the winter, from which non-lignified and damaged shoots, fruits and flowers are removed. In other garden shrubs and lianas, dry leaves are removed, the shoots are carefully examined, cutting off all damaged branches and processing the cuts with a protective compound. In clematis, only the species and varieties blooming on the shoots of the current year are pruned, and the cut is carried out at a level of 20 cm (as for all perennials with hollow stems, such as buzulnik, lily or delphinium). Evergreen crops, cuffs, heuchera, lungwort, primroses cannot be cut off for the winter, as are magnificent daylilies or hosts (only flower stalks are removed from them). Chrysanthemums, ferns, brunner, lilies of the valley, heuchera, violets and cuffs are usually not pruned for the winter. But astilbe, nivyanik, rudbeckia, peonies, asters and tradescantia are cut low. From all plants with hibernating leaves, only yellowed, dry leaves and peduncles are removed.

But there are exceptions to any rule, pleasant and purely practical "buts". Do not rush to remove clumps of cereals and dry inflorescences and seedlings: they can become a magnificent decoration of the garden, as well as late plants with dense leaves like ornamental cabbage, which will perfectly fulfill the function of decorating the garden in winter. Perennials with especially dense bushes, as well as strong dry shoots of large summer plants, are able to effectively trap snow on the flower garden. And if you cut them off, then you will reduce the efficiency of accumulating snow cover (especially at the beginning of winter, when there is still little snow). Of course, you will always have time to install additional "catchers", but you should not leave the flower garden naked and add work to yourself: unless the plants require pruning at the root in the fall and it is not necessary for successful wintering and lush flowering,then leave them in the compositions until spring. If the plant has soft, large leaves and a couple of shoots, and not dense bushes-sod that can trap snow, feel free to cut the curtains.

The rest of the cleaning is very simple: you need to literally remove all the garbage that is on the flower garden. Leaves of perennials and shrubs, remnants of ordinary summer plants, dry branches and other plant waste must be removed. For shelter and wrapping for the winter, for mulching the soil, dry and clean materials are used, woody foliage, and never those plants that grow on flower beds. In such fallen foliage, pests and spores can not only hibernate, it can lead to the heating and death of plants.

After all the garbage is removed from the flower garden, you must

• carry out podzimny water-charging irrigation for shrubs and ornamental woody (pay special attention to conifers and winter-green plants);
• carry out the last loosening of the soil around the plants, aerate the soil (this simple measure will prevent waterlogging during thaws and many other problems);
• mulch all the free soil with any material available to you (at least peat) with a layer of about 4-5 cm;
• tie the crowns of conifers with twine to protect them from breaking off, tie up other shrubs that are threatened with breaking under the caps of snow;
• start hilling and sheltering plants.

Shelter plants for the winter

Winter is the most difficult period for plants and the most serious test that they can face on sites. Of course, native species that have adapted well to the regional climate can cope with almost any eventuality. But there are many plants in flower beds and in flower beds that, with high frost resistance, do not like unstable winters, they winter only under snow or in the absence of winter thaws, fearing getting wet. And this is not to mention crops with insufficient winter hardiness, requiring special shelter. And no matter how carefully you select the types and varieties, there is no single recipe for success. Plants in everything, including preparation for winter, need an individual approach. It is not easy to implement a personal approach in autumn, when every minute counts and so much needs to be done. But if you want,so that your large and small flower beds will delight you for many years, they, or rather each planted plant, will have to pay attention.

Shelter timing is always adjusted according to the weather. Clematis with roses are the first to start preparing for shelter, since this process will last for several weeks. And they are always guided by the weather: they start to take shelter when stable night frosts appear. Usually, the process of final preparation for winter begins in mid-October, bulbous and spring-flowering plants are mulched and covered, as a rule, until the end of October. The rest of the perennials can be covered at the same time, but it is better to wait until the soil is at least 5 cm frozen.

The crops that winter without problems in the middle lane and, in addition to general preparation measures, do not need any shelter, include classic and hardy garden perennials. Irises, perennial poppies, winter-hardy asters, delphinium, aquilegia, lupins, hosts, paniculate and spreading phlox winter as well as badans, cornflowers, astilba, muscari, daffodils, tiger and daurian lilies, geraniums, stonecrops, niv, aconikite and milkweed.

But such favorite plants as varietal lilies, hyacinths, hybrid tulips, pansies, violets, periwinkle, bells, carnations, peonies, daisies require at least light shelter. They do not like snowless winters, dampness and temperature extremes. There is no need to work on a complex "wrapper": such perennials winter well under light hilling, a layer of dry leaves, spruce branches, when mulching the soil around the clumps with peat, compost, sawdust or straw with a layer of about 10 cm. Peat is very often recommended for wrapping up those prone to bulging from the soil of plants, such as daisies and pansies, but as a last resort, just soil will do. They are engaged in the creation of a shelter with the arrival of stable night frosts. The same type of shelter will be needed for young plants in the first winter, and for all biennials.

Little winter-hardy plants need much more serious shelter, like vines on supports, and boles that adorn flower beds. The latter are bent to the ground, while the steeplejack must be removed from the support. For the rest, the shelter of plants is carried out according to the standard technology of sheltering roses and clematis. After pruning (if it is necessary for plants), the plants are spud with soil, compost, peat or humus, covered with dry leaves, and a cover is created from spruce branches or branches, non-woven materials, or a combination thereof. You can also resort to an air-dry shelter, installing a frame around the bushes and wrapping it with non-woven fabric or film with vents for ventilation. You need to start wrapping in advance, allocating at least a few days for each stage-layer, or better - a week. Hilling is enough for plants before the beginning of winter. The last layers of the shelter are installed only when the temperature drops below -5 degrees, the soil freezes by 5 cm or more, and even then, cracks and vents are left in it before the arrival of severe frosts. Wrapping up too early is more dangerous than being late, because the plants can simply dry out. On warm days, the shelter should be ventilated later.

Snow retention and rodent control

The greatest threat in winter is not frost, but temperature drops - a combination of thaws and strong negative temperatures, the contrast between day and night temperatures. Snow is the best possible plant protection. And if it is not enough or a long snowless period has turned out, then even those plants that are considered very hardy will be threatened. Therefore, the distribution of snow in flower beds and beds, additional wrapping in a white blanket is an important measure that creates natural protection for plants. Since it is impossible to predict the weather with accuracy, try to create and maintain a sufficiently thick layer of snow: for a comfortable wintering, it should be from 25 to 70 cm. Snow from paths and areas is always scattered over flower beds first.

You need to think in advance about another measure - the timely laying out of materials that retain snow well. In addition to the plants themselves on the flower garden, spruce branches, shoots of berry bushes, brushwood will help to effectively keep snow in your compositions. They are scattered around the flower garden on "empty" or "bare" areas. The frog or branches used to shelter the plants play a double role - as a protection and a holder for the snow.

Already on the eve of winter, start thinking about protecting plants, especially bulbs, from rodents. As soon as the first snow falls, it must be trampled between the curtains to destroy the passages, but it is better to lay out traps or baits on the flower beds in advance, which will prevent mice from getting under the shelter of large plants. After all, the warmth inside complex shelters attracts not only the useful inhabitants of the garden.