Here are two big yard projects that are smart to handle while our yards are still frosty tundra here in southern Ohio:
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Pruning your trees
Winter is an ideal time to prune your flowers, as well as your trees. You want to prune them before they bud, so that both the flowering bushes and trees can produce the biggest amount of fruit, flora, and fauna. Once they bud, it is too late to prune them properly, and you will sacrifice a hefty proportion of their flowering bounty.
Bushes and trees that do not bear fruit should all be trimmed back in the winter as well, before the spring thaw happens.
To prune, we need to take out any branches that cross, as those crossings impede growth. Starting in at trunk and moving all the way to the most external branches and twigs, removing these branches will foster new growth.
If there are branches that are too weighed down with fruit, we should prune them. It is better to have fewer fruits and have them be healthy — and edible — than to have a large number of small, struggling fruits that are competing to survive.
We will also spray any and all fruit trees with dormant oil after we prune. This spray helps protect the branches and seedlings during the chill, and prepares them for a full and protected flowering once the thaw begins to settle in.
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Building flower beds
The cold ground is great for welcoming new flower beds. You can construct fresh beds for new vegetables, fruits, or flowers, or install planter boxes to plan for your spring planting. It’s smart to get them built now — whether we make them from wood or from other materials — and to get them settled in and firmly established before we try to make them operational.
Winter is also a great time to clean out existing flower beds and planter boxes. Getting dead leaves, fallen blossoms, and other detritus out of your flowers beds will prevent mold, fungus, rot, and other types of degradation from impacting your future flowers.
