Garden Tip - Plant Protection through the Winter

Now that the first night frosts have arrived, it’s the perfect time to make your garden a little more “winter-resistant”. To find out which plants need to be protected in the cold temperatures and what optimal winter plant protection looks like, keep reading.

My plants are cold-resistant—or are they!?

If you plant shrubs, hedges or trees in your garden, you should make sure that they are resistant to the cold. This means that they can survive cold winter periods and produce new shoots again the following year. Although even winter-hardy plants can occasionally be damaged by frost: In which case the dead branches should be removed in the spring.

Good to know: For the first three years your cold-resistant plant should still be warmly wrapped up. This is because it takes roughly this length of time for new plants to build up a sufficiently deep and extensive root network that can withstand ground frost. To ensure that the earth is warm enough, a good option is a thick layer of fir branches or bark mulch. For young plants it would also be wise to have some kind of crown protection, for example from jute or fleece, which can be loosely attached to the trunk.

Potted plants can of course be placed in a greenhouse or similar for the duration of the winter. In case they remain in the garden or on your terrace however, make sure that the container is protected from below, so that the root ball doesn’t freeze. Sheets of styrofoam or wood are perfect for this purpose. Also make sure to wrap the pot—as well as the crown of the plant—in jute or fleece. And avoid spots with direct sunlight, since the temperature fluctuation between day and night may damage the plant.