The often-mild winter days in our area are perfect for prepping your landscape for planting.
Timing is everything when it comes to gardening. While it’s tempting to stay inside on a cold day, waiting will put you behind nature’s calendar for the frenzied spring growth — and inevitable race to our hot weather days (when you really do want to stay inside).
Follow these simple steps now to make your landscape and garden beds more resilient for the upcoming spring and summer.
1. Clean up struggling or diseased plants. Leave the rest in place.
Not every plant will be a success. Sometimes it’s location. Sometimes it’s disease or age. Winter is the perfect time to remove plants that are under-performing or diseased. So put on your “Tough Gardener” hat and remove plants that aren’t thriving so they won’t spread disease, pests and funguses. If they struggled last year, or for years, they’ll struggle again when summer hits hard. Leave healthy ‘spent’ plants and plant material to add nutrients back into the soil, reduce erosion and provide habitat for overwintering pollinators. *If any plants have spider mites, toss them and their spider mites into the compost!
2. Remove invasive weeds that may have taken hold over the growing season.
Is your turf grass creeping into your garden bed? Do you have little tree sprouts popping up between your plants? Unless you want those growing there, removing baby trees and grass runners in the dormant winter months will save you from a lot of digging and regrowth down the road. Many new tree sprouts can be plucked right out of the ground. If resistance is felt, it’s time to get the hand trowel or small shovel and get the whole root to be successful in the removal. Make sure to take out as much of the grass roots and rhizomes as possible.
3. Amend your soil for spring.
Winter is an ideal time to fine-tune the water capacity and nutrient content of your soil. Learn more about what your soil needs in this AgriLife Soil Preparation guide. Many people reserve this activity for spring, but our winter is the best time to add soil amendments like manure, compost or organic fertilizers. Amending soil now also means less work when the busy planting season hits.
4. Prune perennials with care.
Early winter is a good time to trim some of your garden plants, but there are a few to avoid. It’s good to prune freeze-damaged perennials. If possible, leave damaged vegetation as long as possible for wildlife shelter and seed meals for overwintering birds. Stalks can also provide protection to new growth from winter weather and deer browsing (if you have them). When you prune salvias, cut no more than 2/3 of the plant to foster new growth. Prune grape vines, fruit trees, blackberries, rosemary and oregano. It’s also a great time to prune trees, including red oaks and live oaks. Paint the oak cuttings year-round to protect from oak wilt. Avoid pruning most evergreen shrubs.
5. Replenish mulch.
Mulching in winter has all the same benefits as summer mulching: reducing water loss, protecting soil from erosion and inhibiting weeds. There are added benefits to winter mulching: a thick layer of mulch in your garden beds can help regulate soil temperatures and moisture, providing a buffer against freezing weather. As the mulch breaks down it incorporates fresh organic material into your soil.
6. Clean and sharpen tools.
It’s challenging to keep up with tool maintenance when gardening is in full swing. The quiet, slower pace of winter is a great time to tend to your tools.
When done now, these steps will not only help your spring and summer run more smoothly, but they also help improve your garden’s health over the long term.
