2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Perennials grow in almost every summer cottage, and hardworking summer residents strive to provide them with the most favorable conditions for their full growth and development. Do not forget about the proper preparation of perennial crops for winter, because if they freeze, you will have to plant new plants, and this will require additional hassle and material costs that could well have been avoided. How to prepare perennials for winter so that it does not catch them by surprise and does not become an unpleasant surprise for them?
Processing and feeding
To survive the winter safely, perennials need to gain strength. That is why, until the first frosts have time to break out and their flowers with leaves have not wilted, the plants need to be fed with potash and phosphorus fertilizers - such fertilizers contribute to a significant increase in their frost resistance. And all perennials need to be treated for diseases and pests, because only healthy plants are best able to survive the winter. Such treatments are carried out only in dry weather, while it is important to pay close attention not only to the bases of the bushes, but to the soil around them.
We carry out trimming
Perennial plants are able to grow in one and the same place for several years in a row, but at the same time only roots are "long-livers". As for the aboveground parts, their life expectancy usually does not exceed one season - with the onset of autumn they inevitably dry up and die off, and in the spring new aboveground parts grow from the remaining roots.
All dried leaves and stems must be removed without fail, since, firstly, they prevent perennials from wintering, and secondly, with the onset of spring, they become a serious obstacle to the growth of young shoots. It is important to take into account that the pruning time and its height will be different for each perennial. Only evergreen perennials do not need pruning, however, and in this case, too, there are exceptions - if an evergreen perennial is very weak or, even worse, sick, it still does not hurt to prune it.
Don't forget about mulching
Snowless, but at the same time rather cold winters are a very severe test for plants. In order for them to freeze in the absence of snow cover, it is enough for the air temperature to drop to minus eight or minus ten degrees. In order to avoid such troubles, many experts strongly recommend mulching perennials, and this recommendation also applies to cold-resistant plants, because the declared frost resistance of a perennial is far from always true. So mulching will be useful even for winter-hardy ferns!
Before the soil has time to freeze, you should stock up on suitable raw materials for mulching and hide it in a dry and warm place. The best mulch is considered to be dry peat, rotted compost or humus, since with the onset of spring they all perfectly fertilize the soil at the same time. Suitable for mulching and moss, mown green manure and garden soil, which are usually mixed with each other (while the proportions can be absolutely any). And plants-lovers of acidic soil will definitely appreciate the mulching with needles of conifers. As for fresh shavings or fresh sawdust, experienced summer residents do not recommend mulching perennials with them - in order for them to become suitable for mulching, they must "mature" (that is, compost). You should not take too small sawdust, as they tend to cake into lumps, as a result of which the soil surface is covered with a fairly hard crust. By the way, it is perfectly acceptable to add a small amount of sawdust to compost or humus!
And it is highly undesirable to mulch flower beds with straw, as it will quickly attract all rodents concentrated nearby - first they will eat the straw that attracted them, and then everything that is under it.
More serious shelter
Some perennials need not only mulching, but also a more serious shelter. An excellent shelter and, in combination, insulation can be the most ordinary fallen leaves, but it should be taken only from those trees that are not attacked by the same pests and do not suffer from the same ailments as the sheltered crops. It will not hurt to process the collected foliage and urea - for preventive purposes. And so that the foliage is not blown away by the wind, it is covered from above with spruce branches, reeds or brushwood. By the way, spruce branches are considered the best traditional shelter!
Compliance with these simple rules will definitely help perennials to winter easier and again please their happy owners with exuberant growth and luxurious flowering!
Recommended:
We Prepare Fertilizers Ourselves. Part 2
In the last article, we sorted out what fertilizers made at home are for. In this part, we will proceed directly to the process of preparing fertilizers
We Prepare Fertilizers Ourselves. Part 3
Learning to prepare a dry type of fertilizer
We Prepare Fertilizers Ourselves. Part 1
If you have a garden, a vegetable garden or a summer cottage, then sooner or later you will be faced with the question of feeding plants with fertilizers and restoring the soil that depletes over time
Planting Early Potatoes: How To Prepare The Tubers?
In the second half of February, it is already worth starting to think about which method of preparing planting material to start in order to get a harvest of early potatoes. Gardeners have invented a lot of such methods, and everyone can choose something suitable for themselves
Perennials: Bookmark For Winter Storage
With the approach of the autumn cold, it is time to take care of those perennials in your flower beds that do not remain in the open field for the winter. This applies to gladioli and dahlias, chrysanthemums and pelargoniums
