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• 14 May

By Josh Kattenberg

To keep your grass, trees, and perennials healthy, a yard should receive a winterizing regimen.

Once all the leaves have fallen, the lawn should be raked well. In addition to looking nice, this allows the grass to grow back well in the spring, with minimal matted spots shielding the new grass from the sun and air. A pre-emergent herbicide can be applied, since weeds germinate in the fall. A winterizing fertilizer can also be applied.

The lawn isn’t the only part of the yard that needs special attention in the autumn. Trees (especially young trees and fruit trees) and shrubs also need some special help, as their bark can be damaged in the winter, either from the forces of nature or from wildlife.

Wintertime sunshine can cause damage to young trees. Direct sunlight, even in winter, is surprisingly warm. On sunny days, the sun’s warmth causes the trunk bark to expand, but when the severe cold of night returns rapidly as the sun sets, the outer bark contracts more quickly than the inner bark, which can cause the outer bark to split. To protect the tree from this damage, young trees’ trunks can be wrapped in commercial tree wrap.

Split bark isn’t the only problem winter sunshine can cause to trees. When abundant sunshine is combined with high winds, which is common enough during South Dakota winters, evergreen trees are especially susceptible to dehydration. Like all trees in the frozen north, their roots do not absorb water during the winter. Unlike other trees, of course, they keep their leaves all winter, and these leaves can lose water on sunny, windy days. While tall evergreens can’t be given much protection, small evergreen trees and shrubs can be shielded from the sunshine by a piece of burlap stretched between several stakes.

Unfortunately, winter sun isn’t the only danger evergreens face in the winter time. They are especially susceptible to damage by browsing wildlife, especially deer. While deer typically won’t eat evergreen leaves when there is other greenery around, in the dead of winter, evergreens are usually the only green substance available, and deer gravitate to it. The most important thing to remember when protecting evergreens (and any other plants) from deer damage is that deer are creatures of habit. They tend to forage in the same small area their entire life. If that first bite can be avoided, the deer will be less likely to return. Applying bad-tasting or bad-smelling deer repellent on plants periodically throughout the winter, before any damage occurs, is the most effective protection.

An additional step that can be taken to prevent wildlife damage to small evergreens and any other small shrubbery or perennials is mulching. Covering landscaping plants with 2-4 inches of straw, bark, or pine needles will prevent deer and rabbits from snacking on the plants.

Mulch offers several other benefits, as well. It shields the plants and their underlying soil from extreme variations in temperature, protecting the roots and keeping shrubbery bark from splitting. It also protects the plants from heavy ice and snow, preventing breakage from the weight. Mulching should be done late in the autumn, when the nights consistently dip below freezing.