GARDENING INFORMATION

Winter Garden Tips from Roxanna…. January 2006
by Roxanna Nisson

Winter is here!!! I know everyone is waiting for all the beautiful snow , but take advantage of this mild beginning to winter and be busy protecting the garden. There is always raking to do and those brush piles offer important winter shelter to many small animals, so here's a chance to put off a chore. Wait till April to chop and compost brush, the forest animals will love their temporary shelter.

Apply mulch around perennials, including roses, once the ground is frozen hard.

If you burn hardwood in your fireplace, save the ashes to use in the spring; they make a fine fertilizer. When you sprinkle wood ashes around berries and fruit trees, the potash in them enhances the sweetness of the fruit. Spread wood ashes around lilacs to benefit growth and bloom in the spring.

Cut slips of lilac and hawthorn and bring indoors for blooms.

Prune fruit trees any time the weather isn't too cold for you. Fruit trees can be safely pruned until the spring buds swell.

Winter is also a good time to cut grapevines back heavily, pruning the darker, rusty-brown wood to encourage the growth of new wood; if you wait to do this job later in the season, the vines may lose sap through the cuts you make.

Shovel snow over perennials, biennials, and berry shrubs to prevent repeated freezing and thawing.

Prune the following plants during different parts of the winter:

Butterfly bush - late winter
Hydrangea - mostly late winter
Smoke bush - late winter or early spring, before growth begins

I hope these Winter Garden Tips will enhance the beauty of your garden this spring….if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.
….Roxanna
"Earth Kindness Living"