As the growing season winds down, it’s time to think about winterizing your garden. Proper preparation can protect your plants from harsh winter conditions and set the stage for a thriving garden come spring. In the video above, Ask This Old House landscaping contractor Jenn Nawada walks through the key steps to prepare your garden for winter, focusing on watering, clean-up, and protection.
When To Start Winter Garden Prep
November is a great time to begin winterizing your garden. By this point, most plants have finished their active growing season, but the ground hasn’t yet frozen. This gives you time to put protective measures into place to help shield your plants from winter’s harshest elements.
As Nawada emphasizes, it’s important to protect all the hard work you’ve put into your garden throughout the spring, summer, and fall. In the video, she shares techniques to
keep your garden in good shape through winter and ready to thrive next season.
Key Steps for Cold Weather Garden Preparation
These essential steps—watering, cleaning up, and protecting—are simple but make a big difference in how well your garden weathers the winter.
1. Watering
Contrary to what many gardeners believe, watering is an important step in winter garden preparation. Nawada explains that October and November are typically dry months, leaving plants thirsty when the hard freeze hits in December. Here’s what you can do to combat this:
- Avoid overwatering, which can lead to root rot.
- Make sure your plants get enough moisture before the ground freezes.
- Give your plants a few deep soaks in late fall, similar to rainfall.
Proper watering helps plants, shrubs, and other garden favorites prepare for winter without getting their roots too soggy.
2. Clean-Up
A thorough garden clean-up preserves your hard work from the previous seasons. The clean-up process varies depending on the type of plant:
- Annuals: Remove plants that don’t return annually and add them to your compost pile. If you have bulbs on hand, plant a few in the holes left behind.
- Ornamental grasses: You have two options here: either cut them back at the end of the year or leave them for winter texture. If you choose to leave them, be sure to cut them back in late February or early March before new growth begins.
- Perennials: Cut back plants that return year after year to within 2 inches of the soil when they start to brown at the end of the season.
3. Protection
Once you’ve watered and cleaned up, the final step is to protect your plants from the winter elements. There are several materials you can use to safeguard your garden:
- Anti-desiccants: These spray products are helpful for broadleaf evergreens or plants near salted walkways. Anti-desiccants coat the leaves, trapping moisture inside and preventing winter winds from drying out the plant.
- Burlap: In high-traffic areas or areas prone to strong winds and heavy snow, wrapping plants in burlap can provide excellent protection. Secure the burlap with twine, allowing the plant to keep its shape while still permitting airflow and moisture penetration.
- Mulching: Apply 2–4 inches of bark mulch, hay, or shredded leaves around plants to protect roots, retain moisture, and insulate against cold.
- Twine: For some shrubs and plants, simply wrapping them with twine can help maintain their structure under heavy snow loads.
When wrapping shrubs with twine, start from the bottom and work upward, snugging the twine enough to pull the limbs into a conical shape—but not so tight as to snap them. As detailed in This Old House Magazine, this cone shape helps plants shed snow and prevents any single limb from having to carry the full snow load. Untie the twine in spring as soon as the threat of snow has passed; your shrubs will return to their normal shape as the weather warms. For plants close to the house that face falling snow and icicles from the roof, a twine wrap may not be enough—consider covering them with simple plywood A-frames built pup-tent style.
Pro Tip: When applying anti-desiccants, timing and technique matter. As demonstrated on a This Old House segment, you should spray both the top and bottom of leaves to thoroughly soak down the plant. Start applications in November and reapply once a month all the way through winter. The key requirement: temperatures must be above 40 degrees when you apply, because you want the coating to dry on the leaf, not freeze. The good news is that the waxy coating breaks down by itself in spring—no removal necessary.
Protecting Specific Plant Types from Cold Weather
Different plants need different approaches to winter protection. Here’s how to care for some common garden plants:
- Bulbs: Plant spring-flowering bulbs like tulips in the fall before the ground freezes. Cover the area with mulch to protect the bulbs from temperature swings.
- Evergreens: Evergreens, especially broadleaf varieties like boxwoods, are prone to drying out in the winter. As Nawada explains, applying an anti-desiccant spray can seal in moisture and keep the plant from drying out in cold, windy weather.
- Ground covers: Hardy ground covers like juniper rarely require much winter protection. However, a light layer of mulch can help insulate the roots and retain soil moisture.
- Ornamental grasses: You have flexibility with ornamental grasses. You can either cut them back in late fall or leave them standing for winter interest. If you leave them, remember to cut them back in late winter before the new growth emerges.
- Perennials: Perennials like echinacea and mums benefit from being cut back to about 2 inches above the soil line once they’ve browned. This prevents disease and pest issues over the winter.
Pro Tip: After the first freeze, cut perennials to the ground—but not before. As gardening author Laurence Sombke cautions in This Old House Magazine: “If you cut too early, a plant will send out new growth.” Waiting until the plant has gone fully dormant ensures it channels energy into root survival rather than wasting it on tender shoots that will quickly die off.
Advanced Winter Protection Techniques
If you live in a harsh winter climate or have more delicate plants, try these additional protection methods:
- Cold frames: Cold frames are like mini-greenhouses that can extend your growing season and provide extra protection for tender plants. They’re great for winter vegetable gardening.
- Frost cloth: For tender plants or early-blooming species, keep a frost cloth on hand. You can drape this lightweight fabric over your plants when you expect frost for a few extra degrees of warmth.
- Raised beds: If you have a vegetable garden, use raised beds. They warm up faster in spring and provide better drainage, which helps some plants survive winter more easily.
- Windbreaks: Create temporary windbreaks using burlap screens or snow fencing to protect plants in exposed areas from strong winter winds.
Pro Tip: According to This Old House Magazine, exposure to dry winter winds can leave shrubs dangerously low on water and liable to browning. For plantings with no natural windbreak protection, wrap them carefully with several layers of burlap. Another option is a spray-on antidesiccant—a waxy substance that helps lock moisture inside foliage. For evergreen shrubs under roof eaves that are vulnerable to snow damage, set a steeply sloped plywood tepee over each one by joining two pieces of exterior-grade plywood with a piano hinge. Protected with a coat of paint, this simple shelter will serve for years.
Russ Morash, longtime This Old House garden expert, shares his year-round cold frame calendar: “A cold frame can be used for many things other than starting seedlings. Early March: Move first seedlings of lettuce, broccoli, cabbage into cold frames. April: Move those plants into garden; add tomatoes, other vegetables to cold frames. May: Those go out; eggplant, melons, cucumbers move in. June-July: Convert cold frames to mini lath houses for newly rooted shrub cuttings and perennial seeds sown for bloom the following year. August: Start fall crops in cold frame because garden is full. September 15: Sow last lettuces for harvest by Thanksgiving.”
Maintaining Your Garden Through Winter
Even after you’ve winterized your garden, it’s important to check in throughout the winter months. We recommend these maintenance tasks:
- Avoid walking on frozen grass to prevent damage.
- Brush off heavy snow loads from shrubs and trees to keep the branches from breaking.
- Check your plants regularly for signs of damage from animals or heavy snow.
- Water plants during dry spells if the ground isn’t frozen.
