“There’s one good thing about snow, it makes you lawn look as nice as your neighbor’s.” – Clyde Moore This past weekend we received a nice snowfall and I’m pleased to say it covered all of my unfinished gardening projects. I love snow as I like to think its nature’s way of telling me to take a break from my gardening tasks and dream a little about next year’s gardens.
I do hope the snow sticks around as Christmas is just not the same for me without snow. However, as I looked out my living room window, I noticed that branches on one of my mugo pines were bent way over, nearly touching the ground. It was a good reminder that as we get more snowfalls, it’s important to brush the snow off your pine and other evergreen trees and shrubs to prevent breakage. A broom works wonderfully for this task. If you do end up with branches on your evergreens breaking from heavy snow, cut the branches off and use them as extra protection on your perennials. While you are out in the snow, take a walk around your small fruit and ornamental trees to pack the snow down around them to help protect from rodents. Packed snow is a little harder for tunneling rodents to dig through. If you still have any spring-blooming bulbs, it’s too late to plant them now that the ground is snow covered and frozen. Don’t despair though; you have a couple options: plant them in a pot and store them in your cool basement or unheated garage and bring them out next spring to bloom or store the bulbs in your spare refrigerator or unheated garage and then plant them next spring after the ground thaws. You might not get blooms this coming spring, but you should the year after.
