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Winterizing The Water Garden
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After your long hot summer, your thoughts about the garden really are far from your mind, but as the winter is approaching you will need to think about winterizing your water garden so that next summer you can enjoy the same perfect results all over again! The first step, when you are getting ready for winter, is that you should stop fertilizing and adding any additional nutrients to the soil for your plants, saving these tasks for the next growing season.One step that you can take in preparing your water gardens and your other gardens as well for their winter nap is to trim back plants that are deadheaded after the first frost. Cutting back all the dead ends on the plants that have frosted off will allow them to concentrate their ‘energies’ more on stabilizing their roots and preparing for their long winter nap. You will often find that when you don’t cut off the deadheads of your plants around the water garden that pests will make homes in these plants over the winter and your next growing season could be plagued with pests.
As winter is approaching you need to remember not to divide or transplant any of your water garden plants until the spring or you may end up forcing them into growing when they should be dormant which will only kill them off in the long run.
When the leaves start to fall, you should put a protective netting over your water garden to keep the debris out of your garden so you don’t have as much clean up come spring. You should only put a net over your water garden if you have no fish in the water so that they do not get tangled in the net. If your fish stay in the pond over the winter, try making a little dome over the pond with sticks holding the net up so you can easily clean it off as leaves fall on or around your water garden.
Reviewing what you have in your gardens before the first frost will be important if you grow tropical plants in your water garden or in the surrounding area of your water garden. Your tropical plants will die off quickly with the first frost so taking these in the greenhouse or in your home will be an important step in ‘saving’ these plants for the next season.
After you have removed any tropical plants and cut back all the deadened plants from around and in your water garden, this is a good time to do an inspection to check for any problem areas that may require a little fix before shutting down the water garden for the winter. You can repair any rock or concrete trimming around the water garden while you have all your plants cut back and you can also take notice of any leaks in the water garden itself when your foliage is dying off. If you don’t have the time to fix these types of leaks in the fall with the fast approaching winter, you will need to make a note about repairs before your spring growth season starts.
Make sure you take out all of your pumps, cleaning them thoroughly putting them in storage for the next warm season. Read all of your equipment manuals for maintenance tips for over the winter season because some seals and pumps need to be submerged so that they don’t dry rot over the winter. |
Pond News 
