Winterizing Lawns

Winter season doesn’t mean you have to turn your back to your flower garden until spring comes. There is a good number of plants that bloom beautifully even in the coldest of weather. Let’s dig into their world and see which ones you will fancy.

In these days of drought, heat spells, and water wise gardens, many gardeners are interested in efficiency when it comes to irrigation. Drip irrigation is commonly considered to be the most efficient way to water plants. But there’s something even better now: subsurface drip irrigation. It’s one step up – or, rather, one step down, providing low pressure water directly to each plant’s roots beneath the soil.

Winter can start in December and continue through March (we even worry about snow in May up north) but do not let that put you off flowering plants.

What can gardeners do in winter? The answer lies in the soil! but to old gardeners it is still ‘Beyond our Ken’. I often spent too long polishing my good intentions this includes planning to send my mower for servicing and sharpening’ a shame I do not plan to polish up my other important gardening implements.

The green swards in front gardens throughout the UK are not as environmentally friendly as you may think.

Get sowing for some winter greens and veg like Beetroot, Spring Cabbages, Lettuces, Spring Onions, Chicory, Fennel and Rocket.

My mother very successfully grew Geraniums (pelargoniums) as indoor pot plants for many years. For the majority of gardeners the zonal geraniums are an outdoor feature of brightly coloured flowers that are often treated as annuals.

When deciding upon which trees and shrubs to plant in the landscape, I always suggest that gardeners consider plants that offer more than one season of interest. This aspect of consideration is usually not taken into account by most of the people that I speak with, but it certainly should. Especially since there are so many great trees and shrubs that help to brighten up the often-dreary winter landscape. There are several shrubs that flower in winter, some that display vibrant fruit, have interesting form or beautiful bark.

Woody ornamentals can be damaged by cold temperatures due to three main factors: lack of hardiness, early or late-season frosts or unprotected root systems. A lot of the damage that I have personally encountered has been due to low temperatures causing bark splitting. This type of damage is often difficult to diagnose because the effects are usually very delayed.

Have you noticed the persistent brown leaves still hanging on some deciduous trees long after their foliar companions have fallen? This usually becomes very apparent after normal leaf drop in early winter. These brown leaves may remain attached until spring bud growth pushes them free.

Large patch disease is probably the most common and damaging disease of warm season turfgrass in South Carolina. The most susceptible turfgrass to large patch is centipedegrass, followed by St. Augustinegrass and zoysiagrass. Bermudagrass lawns are not as severely affected because with proper care, this turfgrass can outgrow the disease problem. The pathogen causing large patch (Rhizoctonia spp.) is more active in the soil during the fall after temperatures have dropped from the summer‘s heat and again in the spring as turfgrasses green up.

South Carolina is a very special place. From the coast to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, South Carolina has a diversity of climates and landscapes. The diversity of climates allows for different grasses to flourish. Warm season grasses such as zoysia, St. Augustinegrass, bermudagrass, centipedegrass, and bahiagrass flourish at the coast throughout the year, but those grown in the upstate go dormant in the winter. In the dormant stage, the grass turns brown and looks dead, but new growth will appear in spring. Cool season grasses, such as ryegrass and certain fescues, grow best primarily in the upstate but go dormant, or do not survive the heat of summer. Here too, the grass looks dead, with regrowth appearing as the weather begins to turn cool in fall and flourish through spring. Dormant grass still has live roots in the ground that require water, just not as much as when they are actively growing. Unless it has been uncommonly dry or windy, natural rain events are enough to sustain dormant grasses.