When you start hearing the whir of leaf blowers around the neighborhood, that’s a clue it’s time to head outside and prep your landscaping for winter. Or book your cruise to South America.
Or maybe you’re more the “call a lawn care company” type. (Some people are allergic to rakes.)
Does plant health care help plants in winter? It absolutely does.
Tender boxwood leaves need a protective spray to keep from drying out in icy winter winds. Your trees and shrubs may need protection from hungry wildlife struggling to find food. Trees and shrubs can use a final nutrient boost of fertilizer to get them through the winter and help them emerge healthy in the spring.
Preparing plants for winter is actually a partnership. You do some stuff, the pros handle some stuff, and the team effort means everything gets tucked in for snow season.
Dillon Beardall, a manager at Lawn Buddies, shares a few key strategies for winter plant care.
Most plants hunker down under the snow for the winter and emerge just fine in the spring, but a brutal Idaho winter can do a number on some plants.
Do plants need winter health care? Some could use a little protection.
Broadleaf evergreens, including boxwood, azaleas, rhododendrons, and hollies, are susceptible to winter drying, where they lose water through their leaves on warm winter days but can’t replace it because the ground is frozen.
Evergreens like boxwood, arborvitae, and yews can be damaged by the weight of snow and ice, which can bend or break their branches.
New evergreen growth that emerges late in the season can be damaged by frost or freeze.
And many trees and shrubs are targets for hungry wildlife that struggle to find food during harsh Idaho winters.
How can you help? Beardall offers some pro tips as you make your plant health care plans:
“We have a lot of issues with winter burn in Idaho Falls,” Beardall says, and boxwood shrubs are especially susceptible.
Winter burn happens when intense winter sun and wind cause leaves to lose water, but the frozen or dry ground prevents the roots from absorbing enough water to replenish the loss. It’s a common issue for evergreen plants like boxwoods.
What does winter burn look like? Your boxwood leaves might appear bleached or straw-colored. The damage is often most severe on the upper and outer parts of the plant that are most exposed to sun and wind.
Anti-desiccant spray is your best defense against frost damage on boxwoods. It helps protect those tender leaves.
The spray is a liquid-based, organic product that dries to form a transparent, waxy film on the plant's foliage. The protective film slows water evaporation from leaves and helps protect plants from drying out due to winter winds, cold, and dry air.
Spray boxwood and other broadleaf evergreens in late fall or early winter to prevent winter burn.
Bears know to bulk up with extra nutrition before they hunker down for the long, cold winter. A final fall fertilizer application is a great nutrient boost for your trees and shrubs, too, before winter arrives.
When you fertilize in spring and summer, shrubs absorb the nutrients and use them to produce new leaf growth.
But in the fall, their roots absorb those key nutrients and use them to boost their health, really soaking in the good stuff they need to thrive.
Same thing with your trees. They appreciate regular fertilizing during the growing season, but by fall, your trees are often Thanksgiving-dinner-hungry.
Deep-root tree fertilization injects nutrients directly into the soil, rather than spreading them on the surface.
By injecting fertilizer under high pressure, the nutrients can reach the deepest tree roots quickly, feeding your tree from the roots up.
The fertilizer is delivered straight to the tree’s roots, with a long, cool-looking wand, so your tree gets an immediate nutrition boost.
Over time, the nutrients move to the rest of your tree, making it healthier and more vibrant.
Include a final fertilization in your plant health care plans.
“Fall shrub fertilization and deep root fertilization give plants nutrients going into winter,” Beardall says, “and give them some reserves to help them come out better in the spring.”
Mulch tops the outdoor to-do list in spring, but it offers significant benefits in fall, too. How do you winterize a plant? Protect it with mulch.
Mulch is excellent for preventing winter damage to plants, trees and shrubs. It’s kind of like those five fuzzy blankets you snuggle under while you’re watching TV.
Add about 4 inches of bark mulch around the bases of your plants, shrubs, and trees for a layer of toasty insulation. This will help the soil stay frozen, preventing heaving during freeze-thaw cycles.
Evergreens seem pretty sturdy, but if they’re in windy, exposed areas, consider building a windbreak to protect them from drying winter wind.
You can also wrap shrubs in burlap to keep their needles healthy. Wrapping them also helps protect them from damage from road salt sprayed by passing ploughs.
How do you winterize plants? Tidy them up before the snow flies.
Remove spent, dead, and dying foliage and clear any debris from the base of plants to help prevent disease.
But be strategic. If you have perennials or ornamental grasses with seed heads, leave those alone. They’re a great food source for birds in the winter.
Your feathered friends who stay put for the winter need all the help they can get.
Don’t make your plants go thirsty all winter. Keep watering your perennials until the ground freezes to prevent drought stress over winter.
During the spring, summer, and fall, perimeter pest control is your go-to bug zapper. You won’t need it in the winter — once the winter freeze arrives in Idaho, bugs aren’t hanging around outside your house and munching your plants anymore.
But make sure you get your last application of the fall. A late-fall treatment will help prevent these crumb- and heat-seeking pests from coming inside.
At Lawn Buddies, our final exterior pest control treatment is typically conducted in October.
This outdoor barrier protection helps prevent ants, hobo spiders, black widows, earwigs, boxelder bugs, wasps, fleas, and beetles from entering your home, damaging your foundation, and feasting on your tasty plants.
Lawn Buddies technicians spray around the perimeter of your Idaho Falls or Boise home and yard to keep pests at bay.
Do plants need winter health care? They do, if they're tasty.
“We don't proactively cover many plants, but in our Jackson Hole branch, we will wrap trees to protect them from wildlife,” Beardall says.
RJ King, a production assistant for the company, explains how it’s done:
Crews use 6-foot rolls of welded wire fence and attach it to posts inserted in the ground around the tree with wire or heavy-duty zip ties.
“Deer fencing is cheaper, but I think an elk or moose will just destroy the thin black plastic it’s made from,” King says.
Crews raise the fence about 18 to 24 inches to accommodate snow mounds that large game could use to stand on and eat trees or shrubs, he says. They also leave some space between the tree trunk and the fencing, as most wildlife either have a long reach or antlers that can reach the trees if the fencing is installed too close to them. Then, durable wire mesh called beaver fencing is wrapped from the base of the tree up to about 24 or 36 inches to deter beavers from munching at the base.
Doing it yourself? Use the right materials, King cautions.
“The plastic tree wrap people use traps moisture and insects, leading to softened bark, fungal infections and excessive pest problems,” he says. “So it’s not good for extended use for trees.”
Shrubs can be protected from hungry critters, too. Wrap them with netting, King suggests, to keep branches close to the trunk. That makes tasty, tender branches harder to access.
Plant health care in Boise and Idaho Falls means tucking in your green friends for a cold and snowy winter.
Get on board with a comprehensive lawn care program and plant health care, and let the pros help you get your landscaping ready for the winter.
Partner with expert plant health care in Boise and Idaho Falls and rest easy.
First, sign up for our 6-step complete lawn care program. You’ll be glad you did.
Choose an Idaho Falls or Boise professional lawn care service that makes it easy, bundling your yard’s most-needed treatments into one convenient, no-fuss plan.
Then, you can easily add on expert plant health care services to keep your plants healthy and thriving through all four seasons.
Got a few minutes? That’s all you need to get started. You can fill out the form on this page, call us at (208) 656-9131 or read more about our services. Then, you can kick back and relax while the icy winter winds blow. You’re safely tucked in for the winter, and your plants are, too.
Image Sources | Boxwood Damage, Expired Perennial