Question

lawn   QUESTION: Hello, I recently moved into a house that has a front lawn
that was taken care of by professional landscapers.  I do
not have the funds to hire anyone professionally and I would
like to take care of these myself.  I remember from old
pictures of the house that some of these plants were covered
by burlap in the winter.  Is this necessary? as I do not
know enough about gardening to know how to take care of what
is planted in my front yard (or even identify them).  Can
you direct me to what is the best and easiest way to
maintain these?  Thanks you in advance.

Dave

ANSWER: Dave,
The evergreens, in this photo the four upright, needled plants, were probably wrapped to prevent burning by wind or salt damage from spray from the street. If you want to do this, you'd pound four or five stakes around each plant about two inches from the foliage, and wrap the burlap around these. Using stakes to keep the burlap off of the needles is best if you can stand to do it.

Do you have to wrap these? No, but let's consider the possibilities: It's possible that the previous owner had experienced winter damage on these plants in the past and that's why they had the landscapers do it. It's also possible that the landscapers sold this service to the homeowner as a "just in case" service.

You might ask the neighbors if previous plantings here got damaged by salt-spray, snow that was plowed off the street/drive or wind. You can also look to see if they are protecting their plants. (If they don't have evergreens down near the street it could be that heavy snow from plows is an issue.)

You shouldn't have to cover the grasses or any of the perennials - they will all die to the ground over the winter and come back next spring. Leave the foliage there for now and cut down the dead foliage next March or April.

Since I don't know what part of Canada you're in, I have no idea how cold it gets or how much it snows where you are. But the bottom line is this: every home owner/gardener needs to balance their investment in the shrubs and how much they like the plants with the investment of time and money to stake and burlap the shrubs for the winter. Also added into your deliberations should be whether you like looking at mummified plants all winter.

My personal approach to this is that if a plant can't take care of itself through the winter in any particular location, then I've chosen the wrong plant for that location. I don't want to look at burlap all winter and I think there's enough to do without having to pound in stakes and wrap plants. So I'm willing to chance winter damage and if a plant gets mashed, winter burned or dies, then I'm careful not to put something similar back in that place.

When I do landscape consultations, I never recommend evergreens right by the street because of the snow-load and salt spray problems. I would have designed plantings for this area that were all perennials and grasses so that they were dormant all winter and wouldn't get harmed.

I hope this helps!
C.L.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you very much.  I am actually in Toronto and I do not
think I will get much street spray because of the amount of
parking on the street and the slow speed also. I still have
the burlap left here from the previous owners but I also
share your opinion that I don't want plants that are not
suitable for this climate on their own.  My largest worry
was the Japanese Maple (I think thats what is in the middle)  
As it is quite a nice looking tree but still pretty young.  
I think I will just let them fend for themselves this winter
as I do not think anything from the road will splashed on
them.

Thank you for your help and tips

Answer
Dave,
The worst problem for Japanese Maples is heavy snow loads that cause branches to break off or trunks to split. This is usually a problem as the snow falls more than snow from plows, but if you get heavy, wet snows piled on top of these trees it can cause damage. The situation is caused by the horizontal branching habit many of these trees have - it creates a "shelf" that catches the snow, and if it's heavy the branches split or break. Some people prop up their main limbs with boards. Again, I'm inclined to let my plants weather the storms and see what happens.

all the best,
C.L.