The garden is about to explode into bloom, but there is a good chance spring storms will soon batter your lovely flowers.
You can protect them from freezing-you just need to act now.
The garden is about to bloom, but there is a good chance your lovely flowers will soon be assailed by spring storms. You can protect them from freezing—you just need to act now. The best time to get started on property care and protect your plants from the cold is the first quarter of the year. This is when you can apply the most effective treatments. But that does not mean you can take a pass on protecting your garden as soon as the mercury starts dropping.
Preventing Damage from Spring Freeze in Your Colorado Landscape Design
The weather may seem especially cold for late Spring, but we are entering a phase that is typical for this time of year.
Once the sun sets, night temperatures can quickly dip into the 20s and 30s. This temperature is not cold enough to kill frost-sensitive plants, but it is plenty cold enough to damage tender blooms. To protect your spring and summer flowers from the coming freeze, cover them at night when the temperature dips below 32 degrees. You will also want to protect any vines, such as clematis, that you might have trained on a trellis.
When you go out in the morning, it may look like very little has changed—but those flowers are damaged. The flower petals have begun to curl and wrinkle as they freeze. Even if the weather turns milder later in the day, starting with those damaged flowers will not give them a chance to mature properly. The trick to keeping your garden happy in spring is to pay attention to nighttime temperatures and avoid freezing nights.
Gardeners in Denver and throughout Colorado will need to protect their plants for a few more weeks, but the good news is that daytime temperatures remain generally warm. In the meantime, you can help your plants get through the weather safely by giving them some protection from the wind.
According to Eric Ball, Lifescape Colorado’s enhancement manager, “if you can get an extra blanket or some other form of protection on plants before the next cold snap, the overall damage will be minimized.” Additionally, he notes that “if you have larger plants that will not fit under a blanket, then you can always cover them with a plastic sheet until the weather warms up.”
Protecting Your Colorado Landscape from Hail
When spring weather rolls around, we are all anxiously awaiting the arrival of warmer temperatures and longer days. The optimism for a new season is a great feeling, but it can also lead you to overlook the damage that spring weather can bring. Spring thunderstorms are notorious for bringing large amounts of hailstones, high winds, and lightning to the front range. Most Denver homeowners know to bring their plants in at this time of year, but may not know how to protect them from sudden hailstorms.
If large hailstones (or really any sized hail) is forecasted, be sure to place all your potted and hanging plants indoors or cover them to protect them from damage caused by hail events. Put the hail covers for your plants in place and make sure that they are weighted down and sturdy enough to handle high winds. If hail does come through, be sure that you can move your plant containers back outside quickly to allow the earth to cool down, as, after storms, the ground temperature can still be quite hot.
Experiencing hail damage to your plants and garden design? If so, remove damaged flowers and leaves and remove any debris. To minimize further damage (that can even easily be caused by smaller hailstones), place a tarp over the remaining plants to keep off excess moisture. Be sure to avoid wetting plant stems, making the problem worse.
With an increased amount of snow on the ground in the spring, it’s very important to keep your landscape healthy by keeping it free from snow and ice. Snow can damage your landscape and plants, and ice, as well as freeze, can damage any vegetation that is exposed to the cold, so it’s very important to properly prepare your property for the spring and all it will bring.
Protect Your Plants and Landscape Architecture with Lifescape Colorado
For successful Colorado landscaping, you need the right tools, knowledge, experience, and often even a little luck from the weather. The professionals at Lifescape Colorado understand the implications of weather events, such as hail or late Spring freezing, and how they will affect your plants and overall landscape design.
For more design ideas and to get expert help with your Colorado landscape design, contact the experts at Lifescape Colorado today or use the form below to have a professional reach out to you. Here at Lifescape Colorado, we simply can’t wait to help you design (and protect) the landscape of your dreams.
To get expert help with your landscape, contact us here or use the form below to have a professional reach out to you.