You spend a lot of time attending to your landscape plants throughout the warm months of the year, it shouldn't be any different during the cold months. Don't assume trees and shrubs automatically take care of themselves through the winter. Many landscape plants can tolerate cold but they can’t sustain the weight of ice and snow on their branches. Any plant that has leaves during the winter can suffer from drying winds. Because snow and ice and winds, can cause significant damage to trees and plants, it's important to take a few extra steps to protect landscape plants, trees and shrubs from winter's icy touch.
Here are a few tips for protecting your plants from snow and ice:
1. When removing snow from driveways and walkways you want to make sure you don't pile the snow on your plants. Place posts, reflectors or mark your plant somehow so you can remember where they are under a blanket of snow.
2. Take your hands and gently remove settling snow away from plants and tree branches. Using your hands is the best way to keep from injuring your plant. Don't try to use a shovel or some other object, that is how plants sustain most damage.
3. Tie branches together that may be susceptible to snow loads. If you have a naturally leaning tree consider how you can tie it to a larger tree, make sure you have padding for the rope where it circles the tree.
4. After the soil has sufficiently cooled, place mulch around perennials to add a little extra protection for winter. Be careful not to mulch too early as this will delay dormancy.
5. When using salt on sidewalks or driveways, keep in mind that when mixed with snow and slush piles around plants, salt can seep into soil and harm roots. Avoid piling salty snow near plants or on lawns. If this isn't possible, try using an environmentally safe salt such as calcium chloride.
6. Construct a barrier to protect evergreens if they are exposed to high concentrations of salt spray from roads. Treated or synthetic burlap or canvas mounted on snow fencing makes a sturdy screening device.
7. Evergreens transpire water
even in winter. On sunny windy days when the ground is
frozen, the plants roots can't replace moisture loss. You
can make a wind screen for plants using wooden stakes and a
large piece of cloth or plastic stapled to the stakes. The
screen does not have to encircle the plant completely, but
only break the force of the prevailing wind. Also, water
evergreen plants in mid winter on a day when the
temperatures are above freezing.
If your efforts fail and your plants suffer some damage, all is not lost. Drooping limbs can be propped up, fallen trees can sometimes be pulled upright. Dried out plants sometimes sprout back from their roots. Many times, the best advice after a winter storm has wreaked havoc is to simply wait and see. Spring will come eventually and an evaluation of what should be done can be made then. Don’t be in a rush to prune or discard plants that show major damage. It is amazing what a plant can do to rejuvenate itself in only one growing season.