This time of year the weather can be especially unpredictable, ice, snow, low temperature and high winds can all play havoc on our trees and shrubs. And these can be expensive losses, not to mention the amount of time it takes to raise and mature a plant.

Now it just makes good sense then to try to take care of our plants and protect them. For instance if heavy snow is predicted a box like this can benefit from a little help. You see the weight of snow can actually break the limbs down and cause the plant to look misshapen.

One of the things you can do for a multi stemmed evergreens like this is pull all of the stems together and bind then with twine into a cone. You’ll find that the deciduous shrubs like 00:00:41 poinsettia won’t need this sort of protection because they don’t have all the little leaves to collect the snow.

Now if you get caught off garden without getting your shrubs bound up just try to remove the snow as soon as you can. If cold, hot winds are a threat, you may want to give your broadly of evergreens a little protection with a burlap sack. You see the leave is wide enough but it allows the plant to breath through it.

One last tip if there’s a chance that the soil around the roots of the plant will freeze whether it’s in a pot or in the ground you want to make sure that it’s well watered in advance of the freeze.

You see plants lose moisture through their leaves and it all locked up because it’s frozen it can cause the plant to defoliate. Now next time we’ll take a look at some ways to protect trees from winter damage. From the garden, I’m Allen Smith.

For more on this on topic and other information just check out my website P.AllenSmith.com and make sure you watch me on the MBC today show on December 6 and 8 where I’m going to show some holiday tips.