Hard freezes have hit Anchorage this past week and just as the road crews have gotten the accumulated snow removed from roads, we’re predicted to get another “18 inches” tonight! You can bet most landscaping/gardening activity has come to a complete stop. However, it’s surprising how much there can be to do in this type of weather.
One of the biggest things to be aware of, is location of specimen plants in your landscape. Make sure to shovel snow off the walkways and drive, but be aware of small trees, shrubs and perennials you’ve planted to display at their best. For the more tender of your landscape plants, this is when to shovel extra snow on top of them for insulation from low temperatures and wind desiccation through winter. Snow is remarkable at protecting plants buried beneath a copious layer of the fluffy, white stuff!
If you haven’t put away your gardening tools and equipment, by all means get it done NOW! Heavy snow and exposure to weather weakens handles, rusts metal parts, and can speed the deterioration of everything from hand pruners left on the porch, a rake or shovel leaned against a tree in the yard, to that riding lawnmower sitting out, exposed to the elements. Mother Nature is not kind to any thing left outside this time of year.
Wrap twine around long branches of trees or shrubs likely to suffer breakage from excessive snow load. You can bind smaller ones with burlap to protect them, but simply pulling twine around leggy branches of taller specimens can protect them until spring when you can properly prune out overly long branches and favor stronger/shorter branches that can bear up under a load of snow.
Add the last bit of yard debris to your compost pile and turn it before it’s so buried the task is impossible! Even in winter, it’s important to rotate the material from inside the pile to the outer layers and vice versa. Beneficial microbes continue to break down organic matter, even if the process slows dramatically in colder temperatures.
This might be your last chance to get garlic and/or onions and their relatives planted for this fall. Seeds should have been sown a couple of months ago, but small “sets” can be put out under the snow we already have. They will slowly take hold once you get them underground and begin establishing roots so they are ready to “jump” once spring arrives.
Clean up a last little bit around your landscape. Pull leaves off rose bushes still sticking out of the snow banks and get any piles of leaves removed from atop your lawn while they are still manageable.
A last bit of advice for this cold weather… get inside and baby your houseplants. They appreciate a light dose of fertilizer this time of year and they might be the only thing to soothe that “gardening itch” for awhile.
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