Christie’s Blog

Late January 2025

Now, in our Frozen Garden,

What Can We Do?

Here we are in the end of January with temperatures at 9 degrees this morning.  I find this a particularly tricky year to read a garden because of widely vacillating temperatures.  Deep drought and  wet conditions with the help of snow and ice also adds to my indecisiveness of what to do and when.

Put on your thick coat and warm boots. Let’s stomp out there and take a look! I’m right behind you.

Be sure your plants are kept watered or moist.

Whether it’s a pot, new perennial or evergreen,  moist roots do much better surviving in the cold than dry roots. You can hand water anytime or wait for a day when the water thaws in your hose.  Water what you think may be dry. Water around noon if you can when the ground is a little thawed, but before the freeze hits for the evening.

Put a little bit of mulch, pine tags or leaves on the root system of exposed plants. If you use mulch do not put mulch up past the crown of the plant shown in this picture below.

See if there are any places that need more soil. If you moved plants and never filled in the hole from which you moved them, or if  your adored dog has dug ankle twisting indentations, or if an area just sank, put a flag or marker there to remember to add a little or alot of  soil in the case of these photos below.

Check the limbs of trees and shrubs to see if any have snapped or cracked in the January snow. If they have, cut them off where they have cracked. When temperatures warm up a bit you can see if there is more pruning needed.

Check any dry lay stone work like terraces or walkways  to see if any brick, pavers or natural stone has settled. If any has, try to pry up that one stone and put a layer of sand, polymer or stone dust under it to keep the grade even with no tripping points.  Polymer is a great new product which you sweep in between or under stones. It hardens like concrete when you water it in.

Weed beds anytime just to get ahead of work that comes up in the Spring. If the ground is frozen, forget it.

Fertilize beds and evergreens now using a 14-14-14 slow release fertilizer with micro nutrients. It’s wonderful for the plant if you can sprinkle the granules on top of the snow or ice and let them slowly percolate into the dirt.

Cut back perennials in February

Temperatures are so low and then abnormally high within the same week. Too much cold and cutting back branches too early allow stems to freeze lower on the plant. Waiting too long to cut back may cause your plant to sprout with bunches of dead old leaves and stems still attached.

I am going to wait til mid February before I start to cut back my shrubs and perennials unless Mother Nature makes it clear this is too early with lots more freezing temps.

Keep seed heads for re planting.

If you see this kind of seed head in your perennials as you are cutting plants back, put them in a bag and I will show you in the next blog how to harvest seeds for this spring.

As we get into February do not judge too quickly if a plant is dead or not. Give it til the end of April to see if there is any bud or greenery before you pull out the root system. I think Nature is wary too as to what nasty weather event is going to strike!

Christie lives in Manakin Sabot , Virginia where she manages a 3 acre garden. Her blogs are written from her 35 years as a personal and professional gardener.