Winter weather, whether it be freezing rain, snow, or below freezing temperatures, can take a heavy toll on your lawn, landscape, plants, and hardscape. Protecting your landscape before inclement winter weather sets in will help you save on financial costs, plant loss, and structural damage to the hardscaping around your property.
Taking these 5 steps will bring peace of mind while keeping you out of the cold knowing your landscape and foliage are warm and protected. Here’s how to protect your landscape this winter:
#1 Insulate Your Groundcover
Spreading mulch on/around your plants, shrubs, and trees will insulate their root systems during freezing temperatures and snowfall. Many plants can successfully survive in freezing temperature, but their root systems need to be warmer than their foliage to maintain proper internal temperatures while living through days of frigid weather.
How to do this: Mulch should be spread in a 2 to 4 inch blanket across all ground cover with a little higher mound around the plant’s base.
#2 Wrap Your Plants
Your plants produce carbon dioxide during the night. CO2 creates warm air and by wrapping your plants with a protective cover, they will have an insulated blanket to keep them warm throughout cold and snowy nights. Plant wraps come in many varieties including burlap, garden blankets, and plant domes.
How to do this: Be sure to wrap your plants before a snow or freezing spell is about to hit.
#3 Alleviate Exposure
How to do this: Any potted plants should be moved close to your home. Patios walked in courtyards, garages, and retaining walls can all be used to protect your smaller, potted plants and their pots from severe damage. Use plant caddies or rollers to easily move the plants. The temperature close to your house is warmer than the exposed elements even if the plants remain outside. Walls and patios can help with a shield from blustery winds and snowfall.
#4 Do Not Over Water
Plants need to be saturated with water well before a freeze or snowstorm sets in. Plants go dormant in the winter and do not require the water levels they need in spring and summer. Overwatering a plant in winter can cause root damage, fungus, and stress the plant does not need. If snowfall or freeze is forecasted, make sure you water your plants in advance and then leave them alone during the inclement elements.
How to do this: Use a water meter to test the levels in the soil and help inform when your plant is quenched.
#5 Use A Greenhouse
Greenhouses are not just for industrial farms, plant nurseries, and horticultural specialists any longer.
How to do this: You can purchase greenhouses of just about any size these days and most are fairly simple to build and setup. Greenhouses let in sunlight during the day and retain the warmth that comes with it all night long. Like the plant covers, greenhouses also allow the CO2 created to fill the air like a heater. Greenhouses also protect your plants from wind, freezing rain, and snow. All which can damage the foliage with contact.
How to Protect Your Lawn and Landscape This Winter
Your landscape and the plants surrounding it need year-round care and attention. The winter season can be a brutal time for plants. If you do not protect your lawn and landscape in the winter, your yard may suffer in the spring. At Mansell Landscape Management, we know landscape from the inside out. Our formal background is in landscape architecture and horticulture, so we understand landscape from a multi-dimensional perspective. Our background gives us the leverage and uniqueness to create guaranteed, custom solutions for lawn care and landscape. If you need help protecting your lawn and landscape for winter, call us at (770) 517-0555 or contact us online here.
Our Metro Atlanta Lawn Care Service Areas
We provide lawn care services to metro-Atlanta, which includes the cities of North Atlanta, Acworth, Alpharetta, Cumming, Canton, Marietta, Milton, Roswell, Sandy Springs, Woodstock, and beyond.