Getting my garden ready for winter

Speaking of getting the garden ready for winter, here's a related question: How does one prepare the garden for the period of dormancy? I think the term is "putting garden to bed" (or some such). What I tend to do is clear out the dead stuff and spread a thick layer of mulch on top.

Is this correct? Should I do more?

(Sorry to jump into this with another question, Sozobe...)

I'm not a garden guy at all. But I do know that my mother's rhododendrons always handled German winters by themselves just fine, without botanic surgery or anything. In the coldest of those winters, temperatures fell to minus twenty degrees Celsius (that's minus five degrees Fahrenheit) for about a week. I suppose they could handle even lower temperatures, and I would imagine that Columbus winters don't get much colder anyway. But these are two things I don't actually know. So without any claim to expertise, I'd say your rhododendrons shouldn't be your first concern. They're tough.

Re: Getting my garden ready for winter


I can tell you what I do here, in Tulsa, but it may not be applicable in Ohio. Contact a local nursery to double-check:

Hydrangeas & Japanese Maples - First freeze will kill foliage. Gather dead leaves & dispose of them. Do not cut stalks/branches.

Mums, Iris, Hostas - First freeze will kill foliage. Cut back to ground level. Do not disturb roots/bulbs.

Rhododendrons - Don't know.

The main thing I've learned is to remove all dead materials after the first freeze. Bugs, fungi & mold overwinter in dead leaves, so you'll have to use a lot more chemicals in the spring if you leave clean-up 'til then.

We have all of those things here and we do nothing to prepare them for winter. They do just fine.

I disagree with Eva's advice to remove all dead leaves. Yes, cut off dead foliage, but the dead leaves act as an insulating mulch protecting the roots of plants against frost heave.

Since your plants have spent more time in Ohio than you have, I'd assume they don't need much coddling through the winters.

I'd drift into a local nursery sometime between Monday and Friday (they are busy on weekends) and ask for help.

Are you planting bulbs to look forward to in the early spring?

Thanks guys! Connection woes, haven't been able to check back in.

Very useful advice, thanks. Two plants I haven't mentioned yet are vinca and azaleas.

I'm heartened by the fact I might not have to do much of anything. The plants have spent more time in Ohio, but in the company of owners who coddled them with *very expensive* professional gardeners. The hydrangeas and rhododendrons are ridiculously thirsty, I have never been out watering plants more and greeny me doesn't like it much.

Argh, so much to do, so little time, will be bavk...

Sorry to hear the prior were coddling them. My gardening philosophy has always been that plants that belong in my yard have to be tough enough to live without me. Only in the severest of droughts will I go out and water them.

That's my philosophy too! But I don't want to let everything die right off, will gradually replace...

Nursery is definitely a good idea. I should also check Google. (The problem with talking to someone at a nursery is that listening to long explanations that by definition I don't know how to predict and that by definition require some receptive precision [big difference between "march" and "mulch", say] is one of the toughest lipreading situations extant...)

So as many ideas as you have, I'd appreciate. When I find online resources I'll post 'em here.

Mulch is critical if these plants don't have deep root systems. The fact that they need so much watering makes me think they don't. You can develop that over time by watering them less often and more deeply. <yikes...grammar>

This winter, I'd put about 4" of mulch around the base of the azaleas and the rhodies. The other stuff should be ok. Azaleas and Rhodies like acid soil. Take a soil test int eh Spring. You may need to acidify.

the vinca will be fine

go over to taunton to talk to the folks in the gardening forum there - there are some Ohio gardeners there - a few from around Columbus - they were the ones who turned me onto the Chihuly exhibit when it was there.

Here's my two cents' worth:

In the event of a dry winter, water your hi-value shrubs --rhododendrons, azaleas, and such-- occasionally to prevent their feeder roots ( the ones near the surface) from desiccating and assure a good bloom come spring.

Thanks for the tip, neko!

Gawd, a lot to do yet.

4 inches of mulch, check.

The hostas look awful, all yellow and moldering. Do I just leave them or do I cut them back?

Any suggestions on type of mulch? Does it matter much?

Once the leaves start to yellow, cut them off and remove them.

When you water in winter, make sure the water will have enough time to spread through the soil before it has a chance to freeze.

Yaknow, I don't think of rohdies as being thirsty. Hydrangeas, yes. The roahdies need watering only in the driest of conditions. They'll live. I would cut back any dead branches that you see on woody shrubs and trees. Leaving leaf-mulch is fine so long as the pile isn't too deep. Idealy, you'd rake up the leaf, shred it and then put it back.

Most people around here clip the hostas back in mid-October, toss the healthy leaves into the composter. I let them die back, and clean them up in the spring - I like the wood-lotty smell in the spring.

We don't water after mid-October. Once the ground frost has started, it's not safe to keep the outside water faucets active. Burst pipes aren't going to make anyone's winter more pleasant.

Mulch type doesn't matter much as far as your plants are concerned. I guess different barks have different acidity, but I doubt it matters much. Mostly, I think, the preference is one of aesthetics.

I have to figure that out about watering in winter. (How do I do that?) Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, ya don't water in winter. This is more temperate, though. I was assuming no. I can probably ask my next-door neighbors for that one.

Thanks for the hostas info, ehBeth. Sounds like it is again more a matter of taste/ esthetics rather than the health of the plant?

How deep is too deep when it comes to leaf-mulch?

(Sorry to reward your generosity with yet more questions, my ignorance on this subject is very deep indeed...)