An alpine hill is not the most comfortable place for most plants (rock sedums don’t count), especially in winter. And the successful wintering of your green pets on it depends on how well you take care of them in the fall.
Depending on what ornamental crops are planted on the alpine hill, it will require more or less attention when preparing for winter. If you have heat-loving bulbous plants hidden among the stones, or if during the season the hill was decorated with bright annuals, you will have to work hard to clear the structure of unnecessary things and preserve what is needed. If the main decor of the boulders are tenacious sedums, heathers and moss, then there will be fewer worries, but they will still be there.
So, what work needs to be done in the rock garden in order to again admire the picturesque colors against the background of stones in the spring?
Before you send your alpine flower garden into hibernation, you should put it in order: pull out the dry stems of annual flowers, if any grew in the flowerbed, remove fallen leaves and branches, clean the stones from dirt and growths. If plant debris is not removed, they will rot under the snow and will definitely not add attractiveness to the rock garden next spring. And besides, pests and pathogenic bacteria are likely to appear in rotting foliage.
Leaf litter can be removed manually or using a small fan rake. If you are not afraid of damaging the plants, you can use a garden vacuum cleaner.
After harvesting dry plant debris, you should evaluate the chances of successful wintering of perennials and bulbous crops in the rock garden. If chrysanthemums, coleus, pelargoniums and other heat-loving flowers grow on your hill, it is recommended to dig them up and take them to the basement or any room with a low positive temperature for the cold period of the year. Tubers of dahlias and begonias are also dug up, dried and stored in a cellar or refrigerator until spring.
Primrose bulbs can be left to overwinter in the soil, but in order to keep them from freezing, you will have to take care of shelter. What and how – we will consider below.
In a small volume of soil, among freezing stones, it will not be easy for plants to survive the cold. Therefore, additional protection from weather anomalies and wind on an alpine hill is recommended even for cold-resistant crops, and even more so it is necessary for small-bulbed primroses, phlox, lavender and other “whims”.
It is best to cover the rock garden with spruce or pine spruce branches, which can be prepared while pruning coniferous trees on your own site or (if there is not enough of your own) in the nearest forest belt.
Spunbond or other agrofibre is also perfect for protecting plantings on an alpine hill. Try to choose high-density non-woven material, which can be folded in two layers for reliability.
It is not recommended to cover plantings with plastic film, since under it there is a high risk of plants damping out, and this is more dangerous than freezing.
Some gardeners use dry fallen leaves to cover heat-loving perennials, and you can do the same - especially since after cleaning the site you probably have a lot of this material. But just in case, let us remind you that the leaf litter you use for shelter should not show signs of damage by diseases or insects. In addition, with this method of protection, the foliage must be fixed so that it does not get blown away by the wind, which means that one way or another you will have to additionally use spruce branches or agrotextiles.
Dwarf coniferous shrubs and trees are usually planted in rock gardens - they fit perfectly among the stones and act as accents, attracting the eye. At the same time, cold-resistant and hardy crops are not always chosen for planting on the hill; sometimes southern guests find refuge there: cypress trees, fir trees, hemlocks. This means that they absolutely need protection during the harsh winter. And it will not interfere with traditional zoned spruce trees, thujas and junipers, because the alpine hill is open to all winds and the deceptive winter sun, so there is a high risk of drying out and burning the needles.
To avoid losses and not have to deal with the restoration of coniferous plants in the spring, it is better to cover them from bad weather in advance with burlap or light cloth. As a last resort, at least build protective screens from the sun and wind.
As you know, the best insulation for plants is snow: the higher the snowdrifts, the more securely your garden pets are protected from all winter misfortunes. In this sense, it is most difficult for crops growing on an alpine hill - after all, they have to endure weather surprises (severe frost, drying icy wind) surrounded by stones, on a hill from which the snow cover is blown away most quickly.
To preserve the decorative appearance of plantings, protect plants from freezing, and the soil from erosion, your active intervention will be required. After the snow falls, you will need to manually throw it over the slide, creating a protective blanket. It is better to carry out such work in clear weather, at a temperature just below 0°C, when the fallen snow begins to evaporate. If weather forecasters predict strong gusty winds in the coming days, you should not wait for a favorable opportunity - start insulating your plantings without delay.
As an alternative, at the end of autumn you can install snow barriers - shields or barriers made of boards, dead wood, sunflower stalks or corn. The width of structures for retaining snow should be 1.5-2 m, and the height should be at least 1 m. They can be installed along the perimeter of the slide or, if you know the main directions of the wind rose on the site, across the movement of the prevailing winds.
Melt water, which the retained snow will turn into in the spring, will moisten the soil to the entire height of the hill and will nourish your plants for half of the next season. But to prevent snow retention from turning into “the other side of the coin”—flooding of the rock garden—even when constructing the slide, you should consider a drainage system and removal of excess moisture. To do this, before laying the stones and filling the soil, they dig a pit at least 30 cm deep, which is filled with bulk building materials of large fractions.
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