This year, experts are expecting a warmer fall followed by a tamer and shorter winter. However, winter is winter. There’s no stopping Canadian soil from freezing over once more.
Ice and snow have their own way of loosening up the soil and ruining your beautiful landscape in the coming months. Any moisture present in the soil may freeze, leaving icy crevices that can break up the soil. The loose soil can then be blown away by a strong blizzard. Scientists believe water and ice were the causes of major rock formations like the Grand Canyon.
Take the opportunity of a warmer fall to winterise your garden. The most common way of doing this is by planting cover crops, which are designed to be cut down and mixed with the soil to form the mulch in which spring plants can thrive. Some cover crops also deny weeds of water and nutrients by being better hoarders.
Cover crops like oats and rye can take the place of plants that can’t survive in the cold. They may not look as attractive as the spring flora and fauna, but aesthetics is never their primary feature. Cover crops are also called placeholder plants since they stand in for the shrubs and plants taken out until the latter can be safely planted again.
Replacing out-of-season plants is a cost-effective way of maintaining your garden, according to Hamilton landscaping companies like Green Collar Landscaping. By hosting a different set of flora and fauna in your garden, it reduces the need to redraw the entire landscape. A landscape is like clay on a potter’s wheel; you can shape it any way you want.
In addition, your choices of plants are virtually endless. You can pick from local sources or import exotic ones as long as they have the endurance to withstand the cold. Exotic flora and fauna can add a great deal to your landscape’s overall look by creating striking and unique combinations.
However, planting and replanting are tasks best left to professional landscaping in Hamilton and other areas. For starters, concerns regarding invasive species have grown as of late, destroying the local ecosystem. Landscaping experts from the likes of Green Collar Landscaping must take this, among other factors, into account from planning to the actual landscaping.
(Source: “How to prevent winter soil erosion,” Kokomo Perspective, September 22, 2014)