Having a successful garden is hard work. If you are a gardener, you’ve no doubt realized this. One of the most difficult parts is making all of that hard work from this year, lasts into next year. It’s not enough to just rely on perennials and assume that when the snow all melts in the spring, the same garden will reemerge immediately. There are things to consider that will increase the likelihood of maintaining a beautiful garden.
Are your plants “hardy” enough for this area?
Bloomington, Indiana, is in the USDA’s Zone 6 for “hardiness.” Hardiness Zone 6 runs across most of the center of the United States, from places to our east like New Jersey and Pennsylvania, to places to our west like Missouri and Kansas. If your plants are likely to survive the winter has a lot to do with whether they are adaptable to this hardiness zone, so choose wisely. But if they are, then you still have some work to do in order to make sure they can survive the winter.
Care for the flower beds
Before the annuals die and the perennials retreat for the winter, take care to bring the flower bed into order. Remove any weeds from around your flowers that expect to come back in the spring. You don’t want them to have any competition when they reemerge. You can also remove annuals that are dead or will soon die.
Insulate
While the winter is generally cold in Indiana, there are days that are sunny and warmer than usual. These can thaw the ground or even trick plants into thinking the weather is going to continue warming and they should start becoming more active. To prevent this, you should consider insulating the ground in their beds. Snow is actually a good insulation that will keep the ground from becoming too cold or too warm. If there is no snow, people sometimes use special thermal blankets or coverings, or they use mulch as an additional layer between the ground and the elements.
Water strategically
Certain plants should be getting water as the weather cools, and others not. Perennials should not get as much because, although it may seem counter-intuitive, by not watering them as much as the weather cools, you toughen up your plants for when the ground is harder. Whether to water annuals also depends. There are a couple types of annuals. Some, called warm-weather annuals, do their growing in warmer weather, and you can give up on them once the weather turns to fall. But cool-weather annuals, although they will die off eventually, can continue to thrive into the winter, so water them and you’ll get to enjoy them longer.
Get professional gardening help in the Bloomington area
It can be difficult to give general tips for how to prepare flowers for winter because advice varies so much depending on what type of flowers you have. So, why not trust the experts to get the job done right? Anthony’s Lawn Care and Landscaping was voted Herald Times Reader’s Choice “Best Landscaping Company in Bloomington” in 2019, so for this area, those experts are us.
If you’re in Bloomington, Indiana, or surrounding areas like Franklin, Greenwood, Clear Creek, Dolan, Ellettsville, Elwren, Handy, Kirby, New Unionville, Unionville and Whitehall, call us at (812) 345-5694 and we can protect all the hard work you’ve done on your garden.
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