2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
It is deep autumn in the yard. Let's talk about how to prepare the favorite berry crops of our garden for wintering so that they do not freeze in the cold and in the next summer season will again delight us with a fragrant harvest
What does snow mean for our garden?
Snow is a great boon for a summer cottage. It protects our plantings, trees, fruit-bearing shrubs in winter, in cold weather, provides their roots and other parts with an "air" warm cushion from freezing.
Normal snow cover, providing the very required snow "coat" for the winter for plants should be at least 40 cm. However, there are winters with little snow, when there is extremely little snow. And it does not warm the dacha vegetation well.
Or there are other cases when strong first frosts hit in winter up to 30 degrees, and layers of snow for warming the garden were too little formed by this period. Even if after it falls out in a good layer, it is quite possible that many crops will freeze thoroughly and die. Therefore, you should take care of the safety of cultural plantings for the winter. Here we would like to dwell on how to shelter berry garden crops for the winter period.
Strawberry insulation measures
In our summer cottages, a lot of strawberries that are not resistant to cold weather are grown, which require covering them with a snow cover for the winter. In such strawberries, not only the ground part, but also the root can suffer from cold weather.
The warmth-loving strawberries are covered for the winter with spruce branches, straw, needles, tree leaves, and other insulating materials, for example, a solid or perforated film.
This is not all manipulation. Since strawberries need a good layer of snow covering them, it should be caught on it … in special traps in those areas where there is little snow. That is, summer residents put special shields on the beds with strawberries, from which the snow will not be blown out and quickly melt. They also lay out brushwood, branches in the beds, trapping falling snow on themselves. Coming to the garden in winter and noticing that there is not enough snow cushion on the strawberries, it must be added from other parts of the garden (but not from the road!) To the built shields on the strawberries.
Shelter for the winter raspberries
Raspberries are no less a lover of warmth than strawberries (garden strawberries). Although it tolerates the cold more firmly than the latter, however, it should still be carefully insulated for the winter.
Usually, gardeners, when preparing raspberries for wintering, bend their branches to the ground. It is important to observe one subtlety here. Do not leave its shoots high above the ground. Such shoots with a small layer of snow on them can freeze and die. Bend the raspberries as close to the soil as possible. Make sure that the raspberry branches do not rise too high above the ground, their arcs should also be well covered with snow. If, upon arrival at the dacha, you see that there is little snow on the raspberries, add a snow pillow on top. The height of the snow for a successful wintering of raspberries must be at least 60 cm.
How to winter gooseberries?
Gooseberries, in principle, are less whimsical and more winter-hardy than previous berry crops. It should initially be planted in the place of summer cottages, where a large amount of snow accumulates, and where it is poorly blown out of there.
Gooseberry bushes should be bent down for the winter and covered with snow. It is especially important to monitor the good cover of large-fruited gooseberries with a weak development of thorny shoots. These varieties have low winter hardiness compared to Siberian gooseberry varieties.
We insulate black currants
This beauty is also partial to snow, like all berry crops. Currants can be called relatively winter-hardy, but in order to avoid freezing of their flower buds, you should still cover the currants for the winter.
Currants, if its bushes are not old, and it is often and timely cut off, it is easy to bend it to the ground and sprinkle it with a snow pillow. As in the tips for other crops above, additional snow should be sprinkled on it during the winter if its pillow on the plant becomes less than 30 cm.
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