Peter Dowdall: Let's go walking in a winter wonderland
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My children hope for snow each winter. for several reasons — like all youngsters, they love the thought of being out there making snowballs and snowmen and the novelty of the white landscape though, I suspect the overriding desire is for the day off school.
I dare not tell them that I dread it. I don’t enjoy the coldness and the isolation caused by being confined to barracks. However, low temperatures, frost and snow are a necessary part of our voyage around the sun each year and the garden benefits from this, even though there are some plants which will need our attention.
Any annual bedding plants, or late summer flowering perennials which were still in bloom in early November have been given an icy lesson in manners last week with the dramatic and sudden drop in temperature. I was still admiring my borage in full bloom a week ago, now, I have to remove the blackened and dead stems for the compost heap.
Many roses too, were still blooming and most will have now been put to bed for the rest of the winter as growth stopped with a sudden screech of the breaks and the plants now enter dormancy.
During these cold spells, we need to protect vulnerable, frost-tender plants and care for the wildlife in our gardens along with ensuring all paths and paved areas are safe. Most of the plants that we grow in our garden will tolerate extremely low temperatures for a finite period such as a few days. The longer that a cold spell lasts, the more plants that are at risk.
However, frost-tender plants, as the term suggests are susceptible to damage when temperatures dip to freezing or below for any length of time. Protecting these plants is essential to keep them alive until next year.
Use horticultural fleece, hessian, or straw and newspaper, to cover sensitive plants. Cloches and cold frames will provide additional protection for the more delicate species.
When covering plants, it’s important to remove the covers as soon as the temperatures climb during the day to allow ventilation and if this isn’t possible or you want to leave the cloche on for the entire winter, then ensure there’s ventilation provided, to avoid the build-up of condensation, which can lead to fungal diseases.
If you have a frost-tender plant growing in a container then, ideally, you will bring it indoors, inside a polytunnel or glasshouse for the winter and even then, they may need covering if the temperatures drop low enough.
I am a huge proponent of always adding organic material to the soil. Applying a thick layer of organic mulch, such as bark, straw, leaf mould, homemade compost or mushroom compost will not only help to prevent weed growth, improve soil structure and retain moisture in the soil during the summer months but mulching around the base of plants also acts as an insulating blanket, helping to prevent the roots from freezing.
Two tasks I wouldn’t recommend doing in the garden during the really cold weather are pruning and watering. Pruning encourages new growth, which is tender and will be more susceptible to frost damage. Instead, wait until early spring to prune plants like roses and hydrangeas.
If you’re tempted to water plants in pots and containers during the winter, avoid overwatering, as wet soil combined with freezing temperatures will damage roots.
Like every other season, winter gardening is about working with nature rather than against it and this can be a tough season for garden wildlife. Birds, insects, and small mammals face challenges finding food, water, and shelter. If we can make sure that our gardens are wildlife-friendly, this will help to support these good guys in the garden.
We can do this in a number of ways, feeders, birdhouses and nesting boxes will help along with log piles, insect hotels and leaf piles which will provide habitats for beneficial insects and small mammals such as hedgehogs.
Using salt on paths and patios will melt the ice but beware for this can harm plants and soil nearby. Much better to use grit or sand to give a better grip on paths and patios as when you brush this into the soil later, it can only improve the soil structure. Make sure that these areas are cleaned of fallen leaves and algae as when frozen these can be lethal.
It’s not all bad news during the cold snaps as some plants need this drop in temperature to promote flowering. Jasminum nudiflorum, the winter jasmine, Helleborus niger, the Christmas rose and hamamelis, and the witch hazel are all winter flowering, lighting up like horticultural treasures during the quiet season and they will do better after a cold snap.
- Got a gardening question for Peter Dowdall? Email gardenquestions@examiner.ie