5 Ways To Protect Your Evergreens This Winter

Evergreens provide year-round foliage and are known for their hardiness. They can serve many purposes including decoration, privacy, and protection from the wind. They generally require the least amount of maintenance when compared to other plants, but even these trees are susceptible to winter damage, especially newly planted ones!

Here are 5 things you can do to protect your evergreens this season.

1. Apply Winter Mulch – Mulch can help to insulate soils and roots helping to maintain a steady soil temperature preventing extremes in either direction. A warm spell during winter can prematurely force a tree out of dormancy triggering new growth with will then be damaged when temperatures plummet again.

2. Spray Anti-Desiccants – This spray provides a protective coating to evergreens and helps reduce moisture loss. Plants are unable to absorb moisture from the ground when it freezes, this causes them to get it from their foliage causing the leave to dry out.

3. Water Your Evergreens – You certainly do not need to water frequently, but watering between snowfalls will provide them with needed moisture to aid in preventing desiccation. This is especially beneficial during those sunny winter days that we have become accustomed to.

4. Let the Snow Help- Evergreens typically die from a lack of humidity. Snow can act as an insulator and regulate temperatures. Don’t be afraid to shovel some extra snow on your shrubs, just be careful not to break the branches.

5. Wrap Your Trees – Wrapping your landscape trees also offers great winter protection from frost cracks and sunscald. Be sure that the wrap is light in color as dark wrapping will absorb too much heat and kill the tree.

• Sunscald is the freezing of bark following periods of high temperatures during the winter. Signs of sunscald include deep fissures, cracking dead bark and sunken areas.

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If you’re looking to get a head start on spring landscape planning, chat with us. We’ve been helping families in central Ohio for 30 years.

Yours Truly, 

Landscapes By Terra