Snow protects your garden beds. Trees might need some help
Shoveling in single-digit temperatures after the colossal winter storm this weekend, I dumped mounds of snow onto my garden beds, knowing it would protect my trees, shrubs and dormant perennials. When the ground repeatedly freezes and thaws, as it does over winter in cold climates, that can squeeze roots, seeds, bulbs, tubers and rhizomes right out of the earth. Once exposed, they can be killed off by cold, drying winds. But snow cover provides a heavy blanket of winter mulch that insulates the soil, prevents heat from escaping and keeps soil temperatures from seesawing. And as it ...
