So Much for the Edging…
February 15th, 2010
Get used to seeing white. We’ll be looking at it for a long time. Maybe we can’t edge the beds (what beds?) or cut back the switchgrass, but a little thing like 3 feet of snow doesn’t put gardeners totally out of action until April.
This tree-trunk protection is doing you no good now.
One thing to watch for is animal damage high up on young trees. Rabbits in particular love tender bark – especially fruit-family trees like cherry and apple. They can kill trees by “girdling” them (chewing off a band of bark the whole way around). That’s why it’s not a bad idea to wrap young trees with plastic cylinders, wire cages or corrugated-paper wrap heading into winter.
The problem is, unless you wrapped your trees 6 feet up, those normal 3-foot wrappings are doing you no good now. The last time we got this amount of snow, a rabbit girdled my young ‘Gala’ apple tree about 4 feet up. He/she hopped across the snowpack and had a nice snack about a foot above my protective cage.
The good news is that although the tree died above the girdling, I salvaged it by training a shoot that sprouted in spring from below the girdling. I staked it upward to create a new leader. However, it’d be a lot easier if you just extended your wraps now. Once bark toughens up, animals usually let it alone. It’s primarily those 1-, 2- and 3-year-old trees that are at risk.
Watch for vole damage in the lawn once this all melts. Voles (little mouse-like rodents) won’t venture out into open lawns for fear that a hawk will swoop down on them. But given cover of snow, these little root-eaters will make surface tunnels all over the grass. I’ll bet they’re down there right now having a good ol’ time. We’ll have to worry about this one later because there’s nothing we can do now.
What you can do now is start seeds of cool-weather veggies. I’ve got my cabbage, broccoli, leeks, cauliflower and a few early tomatoes for the Wall-o-Waters already going under lights in the basement.
Now’s a good to order seeds if you haven’t already done that or to browse the seed racks at the garden center. The selection is best before all of the less obsessed gardeners get around to buying them in April and May.
Get your planting plans done so you’ll be ready to hit the ground running once we can actually see the ground again. Get ideas by snooping around the Plant-of-the-Week Profiles or by visiting some of the sites listed under Links and Resources.
Enjoy those houseplants. Sharpen your pruners. Clean your mower blades. Replenish your fertilizer supplies. And if you’re really suffering chlorophyll withdrawal, go to the garden center and wander around the greenhouses. We’ll make it.