Gardening – Winter garden care

By Andrew Steens

This has been a cracker of a winter compared to the previous few years. It’s been a while since I’ve seen frost damage to shrubs such as hibiscus and vireyas in our neck of the woods and even Bangalow palms have taken a bit of a scorching. There has also been the odd hail shower and plenty of wind and rain to back these up; all told, a tough winter for our normally sub-tropical environment.

It can be heart-breaking to see the blow-torch like damage to sensitive plants like bromeliads, bananas, heliconia, tamarillo and cannas. It’s tempting to trim off the dead material to freshen the garden up, but my advice is leave the garden alone. Removing dead foliage exposes the rest of the plant to more frost damage. It can also spur the plant into producing new, even more sensitive growth, which saps energy from the plant.

Likewise, resist the temptation to take relatively undamaged bromeliad pups off their mothers or separate young shoots from bananas and the like. Even though the mother might be nearly dead, the root system will be supporting the pup through the colder periods and the dead leaves will offer some frost protection. Don’t take pups or suckers off subtropical plants until well into October, when the soil has started to warm and all danger of frost is over.

Another no-no is the common mistake of spraying the plants with water on a frosty morning. This is based on the orchardist’s trick of using water to prevent freezing damage to young growth and flowers. Unless, like these orchardists, you’re prepared to get up before the frost settles (probably about 4am!) you can be doing more harm than good as the rapid temperature rise can rupture even more plant cells than the frost alone will.

I used to rush about with rolls of frost cloth to protect my extensive collection of bromeliads and tropical plants. Over the years though, I’ve found the best protection comes from over hanging foliage and nearby buildings, so sensitive plants are best grown in these spots rather than out in the open. If you are covering your plants with frost cloth or paper, try to avoid having the material in contact with the leaves. Make a tent above the plant instead, using bamboo stakes or twigs to keep the material away from the leaves.

Frost settles like water, pooling in low lying areas. Flat sections, or worse still valleys, can provide a nice settling place, but if you are fortunate enough to be on a ridge or slope above a valley, then remove any ground level barriers to airflow. By keeping grass short and pruning up shrubs and trees a metre or so from ground level, you can make frost drain to lower lying areas and away from your garden. Conversely, any plants that need more chilling, for example apricots, peaches, almonds and hazelnuts, should be planted in the valleys. A heavy frost will also kill more pests that are over-wintering in your garden. Every cloud has a silver lining!