It was a cold, gray and damp day. The fallen leaves lay strewn across the lawn. The herbaceous Peony needed to be cut back. Several plants still needed to be planted. But where was the gardener? Hiding in the house. I admit it, I'm a wimp. My body hasn't had time to adjust to the cold. Only a week ago it was 71F. It's topped out at a whopping 36F today.Looking at the above photo, I realize that at some point I'd like to connect the two new beds. But then a bolt of reality hits me: I have to leave room to pile up shoveled snow. Remember last winter, how the snow nearly buried the Cornus kousa 'Beni Fuji' and did completely bury the little Cotinus coggygria 'Ancot' (Golden Spirit) (click here)? Granted, that was an extreme amount of snow, but still, even in a normal year, the snow has to go somewhere. I've read in several places advice that shoveled snow should not be piled on plants. Does this mean I have to leave grass "shovel strips" on either side of the driveway? If so, how can I make an effective design incorporating them? Last winter the snow got shoveled all the way to where the new bed is. It's funny how I forgot all about the winter when I planted the new Rose and the new Sedum. In Chicagoland, the gardener forgets the winter at her own peril.
24 comments:
I have a bed sandwiched between the house and the driveway. Snow always gets piled on this bed and the plants always come back. As long as the plants can tolerate winter moisture they should be fine. Plants that must have good drainage wouldn't work, and woody plants would be in danger of breakage. If you sprinkle a lot of salt on your driveway, and then wind up shoveling the salty snow on plants, that could wind up being harmful.
MMD,
What a dilemma...I have only gardened in the south, so this idea of needing to plan for snow is foreign to me. I do understand about planning for our wet winter weather. That means all plants that need good drainage must be in the best winter spot...i\It is easy to forget winter in the heady days of of spring when nurseries have every tempting plant imaginable. Good luck...I look forward to reading what other northern gardeners have to say!
WEll, now that's a PAIN! But I love your frosty header!
We don't have snow often enough to worry about where to put it. I guess you just have to leave room for it. It looks like plants would be ok with snow on them. After all places further north that are snow laden alll winter don't lose their plants. Or do they? Hmmmm
Hi MMD, sounds like Kathy has a good idea, plants that can tolerate wet roots and are zone hardy for you. No woody shrubs, but there may be some grasses besides lawn grass that would survive. To the books!
Frances
I have perennials and self sowing annuals in a bed surrounded by the sidewalk and parking lot at church that can survive the summer with little water. The area gets rocks and snow shoveled quite high in the winter. I've never had anything not survive the winter due to that, that I am aware of.
I echo Kathy... and then add that my front yard garden is on a slope, so even piling up snow on top of things that DON'T like winter wet (like my lavender) doesn't seem to have much of an ill effect on them. But yours looks fairly flat, so that would be a consideration for you.
What about larger-scale annuals? Have you ever wanted to plant something like datura or brugmansia... or even canna or amaranth? That might be a good compromise, since you wouldn't have to worry about hurting anything there in the winter.
I know that my parents have a bed along the driveway that gets huge amounts of shoveled snow piled on it every winter and is never worse for the wear. Perhaps you would need to choose hardier plants for that area?
MMD,
I wouldn't worry too much about piling on the snow ... that little bed by our steps that I have featured previously (the one with Shady's "A Round Tuit" and the gargoyle) gets piled high all winter and the primroses, Tricyrtis 'Gilt Edge' don't seem to mind, and even the lavender seems to like it.
In fact, I think it may be the secret to the primroses' success, since they have failed everywhere else we had them previously and these guys are thriving. They emerge a bit ragged looking at the end of winter, but always shockingly green, considering they spend months buried!
Hi MMD, In my last house I had a 4' wide bed right along the edge of the entire length of the driveway. The bed was there when I bought the house. It was very nicely planned by the previous owners of the house, who were avid gardeners, and designed for bloom from early spring through late fall. It was really beautiful.
There was no place else for the snow to go but there. Some years snow would be piled up over 3' tall on that bed. Boxwoods were the only shrubs, but they always made it through the winter along with all the perennials, including mums, and lots of bulbs. Several years the boxwoods were completely buried in snow. I hated to pile all that snow there, especially the first year, but there was no where else for it. I never lost a thing in that bed. Even the mums came back every year. I think the snow was more of a help than a hinderance.
Kathy - that's good to know. We don't use road salt on the driveway. Instead, we use this stuff that's less corrosive & pet safe, which has some kind of fertilizer in it. The grass along the driveway always looks greener than the rest of the lawn in spring.
Gail - next year I vow to keep winter in mind as I do my planting!
Thanks, MA, that's a frozen Osteospermum. They were blooming quite well until this hard frost/freeze a couple of days ago.
Lisa - you do live in Indiana, right? (No snow - not fair!) Snow usually insulates plants, so it must be the squashing of them with snow instead of the gently falling flakes blanketing them that causes the problem.
Frances - there is a Rose in there, but the Cotinus, Physocarpus & Cornus all survived last winter just fine. I also put that variegated bulbous oat grass over there. I hope it will be okay.
Blackswamp Girl - I did plant a bunch of Lavender there, but the ground is actually sloped there, and the Lavenders are on the end where the slope is more prounounced. It'll be interesting to see if any of them survive the winter. Winter wet isn't usually a problem here, but you never know. I like the idea of annuals. I never think to plant them in the ground, but I decided that next year I wanted to plant a patch of tall Zinnias, so that might be the place for them.
Amy - thanks for the input. I'm starting to feel a bit better about this now. I don't think hardiness will be the problem, as being buried in the snow will insulate the plants from the coldest temperatures.
IVG - I'm glad to hear that your Lavender tolerates the snow piling. Maybe I should try a Primrose in there. I've never had success with them.
Gardengirl - oh, good, more success with snow dumping! I can relax & continue planning. Now all I have to worry about is a path for the mailman.
Crumbs! Here I was all ready to dish out advice and then you ask about something I don't know much about as we hardly ever have snow here, most times not even a light sprinkle let alone the amount that you had last winter. Fortunately there are others that are more knowledgeable in this area I see and who have been kind enough to give you the help you needed. :-)
BTW it's good to know that I'm not the only fair weather gardener. ;-)
It's frigid here also with still much to do in the garden and many leaves still on the trees. We have huge issues with snow also. My hydrangeas next to the garage must be severely pruned to accommodate heavy snow on the driveway. At the end of the driveway is a row of daylilies, which allows room for the piled drifts. I can't believe I'm talking about snow ... sigh!
Snow usually isn't a problem down here but when I was a kid in PA I remember what those winters were like. What if you went ahead and connected the beds together and added a sort of rain garden drainage system underneath (gravel) then covered it with landscape fabric then soil. That would at least allow you to plant annuals in that area until the winter weather killed them off. I don't know if it would work in that spot but it might be worth a shot! :)
Ahhh, it seems only yesterday we had glorious warm weather....wait it was almost yesterday! I think this quick winter weather is the pits. It sure doesn't go from 36 to 71 in 2 days in the spring does it. As for piling snow, I would at least try to keep the piled stuff of your little trees. I don't think it will hurt the roses or the smaller leafy plants. Good luck on getting the rest of your fall chores done. I have called a halt to mine due to lack of interest. :)
Yolanda Elizabet - I do garden in the rain - in the summer! It's felt terrible out there this week. My poor fingers are red & aching with cold after working outside. I wish I could garden in mittens.
Joey - sorry I mentioned the snow, but really, it won't be that long now before we have to deal with it.
Dave - I've been thinking about a rain garden a lot lately. I'd just loose the nice effect of the grasses in a very snowy winter.
Beckie - it was the street snowplow that buried the Cotinus last year. You should see what they do to the main part of the front lawn. It still bears the scars by the curb. Regardless of the amount of interest, I intend to do as much of my chores as possible. I hate having leaves under the snow.
I had never thought of this either, MMD! Who thinks of winter snow when we're out planting on a glorious spring day? I see someone else made the comment that I was thinking--I wouldn't think the snow would hurt, but if the streets have been salted, that's another story. Probably not a good idea to tempt fate too much.
MMD, My "Sunny corner bed" lies between our driveway and the road that goes to our next door neighbor (all gravel). This bed gets Plenty of snow and everything does well. The only plant that doesn't do well at all is a "nearly wild rose" Perhaps the snow piles situation might explain why? But, I rather suspect it's the soil into which it was first planted... lots of clay. I will probably dig it up this Spring, greatly amend the soil, and try another.
That would be pretty connected, then again I know nothing about snow. I looked at your older posts you have some pretty plants.
Rose - I've been trying to come up with a list of salt-resistant plants for the bed by the road. That way I don't have to worry about the plants making it through the winter.
Shady - I hope it's the soil that's causing the problems for your Rose. I don't know where I could move my Rose if it is not happy where it is.
Hi, Darla, thanks for visiting!
Last year we set a record for snow here in Madison WI (101.4") and the city piled it on my front garden which slopes up immediately from the street curb and my husband and I piled it on the long bed that is adjacent to the driveway with no space or "snow stip" as you called it. The city is on a low-salt diet but still ...
In the street bed Hostas, geraniums, Alchemilla, daylilies, daffs, Japanese painted ferns, Hakonachloa grass all came trough with flying colors.
In the driveway bed, the problem was the weight of snow on yew balls, red barberies and assorted other shrubs and trees — none of which were caged or protected as our normal snow is about 42" and comes and goes. I suffered a few broken branches but that was it. All the perennials came back with no problems.
So my recommendation would be to plant to the edge and perhaps do a little protection of things like the tree peony if you are really worried.
Ms. Wis. - we were close to the record for snow fall last year. Thanks for pointing out the importance of caging the woody plants. The one shrub that was completely buried, a Cotinus coggygria, was protected by a chickenwire cage that I had wrapped it with to protect it from the deer. I'll wrap it again this winter then.
You could do what we've done in some of our areas where snow gets piled. We took brick and made a two-foot strip next to the drive. It's nice in the summer, too, for when we park in the drive and get out of the car when it's been raining. No stepping into the wet grass!
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