How to Winterize and Protect Your Garden

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Winterizing your garden is fairly easy to do and should be done whenever the temperatures will drop to or below

32 degrees Fahrenheit/0 degrees Celsius

in your geographic area.

Not the prettiest pictures but you might like my

crazy ingenuity here with the towels!

😉

This was probably taken in January/February when my mandarin oranges were ready to eat. The rose in the urn was just putting out leaves so this could even be late February/early March. Hard to tell… Southern California has weird winters
with a lot of Santa Ana warm spells kicking in that cause plants to come out of hibernation early.

When it was just getting down to 32 degrees here

in North Texas this year in late October into November

I began wrapping my plants in beach towels at sundown.

This is the same thing I did to the potted plants we

kept out on our back patio in California as those were the

only ones which were really exposed to tougher winds and

cold weather each year.

Each winter I would move the plants over on the patio table on the right over to the left of the front doors ~ just beyond far left in this photograph. Here I was in the middle of repotting the big overgrown ivy into these twin garage sale lion pots and creating a second ivy topiary with a bunch of cuttings.

Tip #1 – Use your clothes dryer

The plants out-front at our last house were underneath

a large covered front porch and they seemed to

do pretty well there ~ it helped that our dryer vent was

right there, too, and the two potted ivy plants

loved the warm air there!

It was a great trick to start the dryer at 5:00am getting

double the benefit of that heat as I’d have put in clothes

to wash the night before and in the early morning

that gentle warm air venting outside would be

just warm enough

to help keep the plants on the patio and in the

front planter bed from freezing.

🙂

Toweling around the back porch plants was

just enough protection to keep the dewy cold night air

off of those plants’ leaves and off the tender canes of

the potted rose bushes to prevent them

from freezing.

Tip #2 – Use your old blankets and quilts

If you have any bouguainvillas or hydrangeas you’ll want to

cover those with towels and/or blankets, too,

depending upon the size of the plants.

Each winter in California we had that one or two weeks

of temps down in the 20’s and it would be enough to

freeze the oranges and ruin the whole crop.

Invariably the bouguainvilla would

always be blooming

at this time of year since we would have had these

misleadingly named warm “Santa Ana” winds

come in from the south and west which would

trick all of our plants into thinking that

spring had arrived.

These really warm dry winds would then be

fatally followed by freezing cold arctic winds

blowing down from Canada ~ never failed.

But…

taking a little extra care with some old quilts

and a bunch of clothespins ~ covering all exposed leaves

branches and vines on these plants that are

subtropicals {do okay to 30 degrees}

really helped these plants to survive and thrive.

The roses planted out in the yard I never covered but

would make sure to prune back their canes and strip

their leaves by late November/early December

or sometimes even as late as January

each year.

I wrote about pruning roses a few years ago

if you might need a few tips on

how to do so.

🙂

With nighttime temps dropping into the 20’s here

from mid-December onwards more radical protection

was needed from the elements than where we came from

in So Cal.

A bag of wood shavings or bark is enough

to protect the plants themselves

plus those towels.

🙂

Rose bushes can stand pretty low temperatures but with

the windchill getting down to 0-degrees F. at night

the addition of the wood shavings really helps to keep

{that big bag of pine shavings you see lying on its side ~ adding an extra

wind break around my hydrangea and some of the potted violets.}

plants’ roots and main bodies

from deep freezing.

Tips #3 – Winterizing roses in colder climates

In Southern California we were in the high desert areas in

growing Zone 10 according to Sunset Garden Magazines

guidelines. Here in North Texas, our city of Sanger is

considered Zone 7 ~ quite a bit colder than

what I’m used to gardening in previously.

Pruning roses for areas even farther north

{Zone 6 and below}

which have temperatures dropping to less than

0-degrees F. each winter

you’ll want to:

1. Cut your rose canes all the way down to 1/3 the

original height or even to the root ball.

Strip all leaves like normal, too.

{Don’t worry as your rose will put out lovely new shoots next spring

when it preps for its late spring and summer showings.}

🙂

2. Bury your roses with bark or wood shavings

like I’ve done here and also pile dirt on top

of each bush.

3. With any roses but especially climbing roses,

strip the canes free of any leaves and bring the canes

down off of any structures.

Lay the canes down to the ground digging a trough

and then pile bark and dirt on top essentially

burying the bushes.

Uncover roses and tender bushes in the springtime in

these extreme growing areas only after the danger of

hard freezes is over for the winter season.

You can see the crepe myrtle here snugged up against the cold.

Around the camp there are a number of crepe myrtle

bushes and trees so I knew my baby one would do alright

if I just coddled its base with shavings and a towel.

On days when its warm or at least the sun is shining

I’ve been unwrapping my plants to let them synthesize

chlorophyll and do what they do naturally.

Tip #4 – Water regularly if no rain

Do remember to water your plants in winter when there

are drought conditions as this helps roses and all plants

deal better with freezing temperatures.

Native plants tolerate extreme temperatures

well and better than ornamental plants do

{my usual plants and probably a lot of your plants, too. ;)}

as you can see in these bushes planted

by the park’s pool area.

Well, I hope this little guide will help

you with winterizing your gardens.

Next – I’ll be talking about winterizing your RV ~

the joys and experiences we’ve gone through just

this past week and over the last two years of

living the RV life.

Sharing with

Wow Us Wednesday ~ Savvy Southern Style

Talk of the Town ~ Love My Simple Home

Totally Terrific Tuesday ~ The Savvy Apron

Feathered Nest Friday ~ French Country Cottage
Friday Features ~ Oh, My Heartsie Girl!

Enjoy,

How to Winterize and Protect Your Garden

Tip #1 – Use your clothes dryer

Tip #2 – Use your old blankets and quilts

Tips #3 – Winterizing roses in colder climates

Tip #4 – Water regularly if no rain

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Published by French Ethereal

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Tip #1 – Use your clothes dryer

Tip #2 – Use your old blankets and quilts

Tips #3 – Winterizing roses in colder climates

Tip #4 – Water regularly if no rain

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Published by French Ethereal

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