Larry Smith and the Riverside Gardens team talk about all things pots, plants and pruning in their weekly gardening column.
Winter has certainly let us know that it is here this year with a mixed bag of cold, windy, wet days and lovely sunny days with cold, frosty mornings, none of which are conducive to good growth in your garden. There are, however, a few things that you can do to help your garden out at this time of the year to restrict the damage that can be caused by extreme weather.
Check the drainage of wet, waterlogged garden beds, try and drain off any free-standing water, and check drainage pits and stormwater run-off. Loosen up any organic mulch on the surface of garden beds to help them dry out quicker. Also, be sure to check irrigation systems for leaks, making sure that they are set to a winter watering program or shut down altogether.
Young trees, standard roses and other ball topiary plants should be checked to make sure they are staked securely.
Young trees should be staked with two or three stakes, using a figure-eight method when tying. This means fixing the tie to the stake, then forming a figure eight around the trunk and back to the same stake again. The process is then repeated on the other stakes so that they hold the trunk in tension. This method allows limited movement of the trunk while keeping the root ball still, helping them establish strong trunks and a robust root system. Young trees should be staked for at least the first year.
Short standards, like roses, will always need to be kept staked, but they only require one stake placed tight against the stem. Make sure the ties are adjusted each year though, so that they do not cut into the stem as the stem increases in diameter.
Cold, frosty mornings can cause substantial damage to your garden, from burnt foliage to disfigured trees to plant losses. However, there are several ways to help your susceptible plants survive with minimal or even no damage.
The easiest way is to spray susceptible plants with products like ‘Envy’ or ‘WiltNot’. These are polymers that coat the foliage and offer an increased frost tolerance by an additional four degrees. It can also be used to offer protection from both windburn and sun scorch. The polymer will slowly be broken down by sunlight, so it will need to be reapplied over the season. How often will depend on the amount and intensity of sunlight used for the time of year.
You can also protect your plants from frosts by using frost cloths, old sheets, hessian, or ‘matrix’ cloth. This can be draped over the tender plants on frost nights and then removed in the morning once the temperature rises a little.
The third method is to wash the frost off the foliage early in the morning; this may need to be done a few times each day until the temperature rises enough. This is the least efficient method, but it will help if you remember or have enough time each morning to predict frosts.
In the garden centre, we use all three methods combined, to keep plants looking as best we can over the frosty season. The most tender plants are sprayed with ‘Envy’ as we come into winter and repeated as needed. We have a frost program set on our irrigation system that turns on rows of sprinklers successively across the plant area on a continuous rotation from 5am onwards on frosty days. Then finally, we have cloths that are thrown over groups of plants that need extra protection each night when heavy frosts are predicted, which are then removed in the morning before we open.
Using seaweed-based products like ‘Seamungus’ or ‘Maxicrop’ to feed your plants coming into and during winter will also help build up resilience to climatic conditions like frosts.
If you are unfortunate to have plants damaged by frosts, resist the temptation to trim off the burnt foliage until after the threat of frosts has passed. Although it might look unsightly, the damaged foliage protects the foliage and timber beneath. A trim over in spring will hopefully see the plants soon bounce back, albeit missing a season or two of growth.
Don’t forget, if you need any further information on winter plant protection, call the garden centre for a chat; we would love to see you succeed in your garden.