Winter clean-up in the garden pays off

It may be the dormant season, but there’s plenty to do in the yard and garden at this time of year. In fact, what you do now will have good consequences throughout the coming season. And what you leave undone will cause you some headaches.

So here’s a quick guide to the essential chores that should be done between now and Valentine’s Day.

Flowering Shrubs: Spend a minute with each ornamental shrub. Trim away crossed or broken branches. If a branch looks awkward, it is awkward. Prune it away. Notice the wood that grew last summer, and the 2-year-old wood it grew from. Stems three years old or older should be removed. After pruning, the shrubs should look open and airy. Give it a bucket of compost and it will look great in the season ahead.

Edible Fruit Trees and Shrubs: Shrubs producing edible fruit, such as blueberries, currants, gooseberries, and elderberries, just need minimal pruning to keep them open so air circulates around the fruit. It’s a good idea to remove woody stems over five years old.

Among fruit trees, apples come with a handful of rules for pruning, but once you understand the reasoning behind the rules, they’re not mysterious. The main idea is that you want the center of your tree to be as open and airy as possible. Density and clutter in the middle of the tree can lead to shaded blossoms, reduced set, and the development of apple scab and other diseases. While the center should be relatively clutter-free, allow a strong vertical trunk in that area to become the tree’s leader.

Now go around the tree, looking for crossed branches and branches within three inches of each other vertically. Trim off the lower one. This allows the top branch, when filled with heavy fruit later in the year, to be able to dangle the fruit without it touching a branch below. Think about how the sun will strike the tree and prune for the most advantageous display of leaves to sky. In other words, if two strong branches are in a position to shade a lower one, consider removing one of the upper branches or the lower one.

When you trim back branches to get a more compact shape, don’t just “tip” the branches, remove them back to the branch from which they arose. Notice that there’s a collar of rough bark around the place where one branch gives rise to another. Try not to cut into that collar or you’ll stimulate the production of suckers.

Speaking of suckers, trim away all suckers that grew last season on the aerial portion of your trees and shrubs. These might be strong vertical watersprouts, or a series of small stems emerging from where a branch was cut. And especially remove all suckers emerging from the soil, since these are from rootstock, which may be a different variety altogether from the scion wood above the graft that is, your chosen variety.

Most other fruit trees don’t require a lot of pruning. Some cherries might get rangy, so it would be a good idea to prune them back to a height that allows you to easily reach the fruit. Prune other fruit trees judiciously, only to shape or remove problematic branches.

Roses: Now’s the time to prune repeat-blooming roses, such as hybrid teas. They bloom on new wood, not last year’s wood like June bloomers, so trim each repeat-blooming rose back to just three stems, each about two feet tall. Vigorous roses like climbers and ramblers need renewal now, which means cutting away branches at least five years old. Wear protective clothing and gloves or “Ouch!”

Insect Controls: Now’s the season to apply non-toxic insect controls. Spray your fruit trees and shrubs with dormant oil, so called because it’s applied now, in the dormant season. If you apply it after bud break, the oil will kill the leaves. And what the oil does is seep into cracks in the bark to find insect eggs and overwintering larvae of pests. It penetrates the waxy surfaces of the eggs and larvae and kills them.

If you are growing peaches or nectarines, use a copper-based spray on them now. There is a nasty fungus disease called peach leaf curl that will ruin the leaves, shoots, and fruits of these crops. Ask at any garden center for a copper spray for peach leaf curl. Apply both dormant oil and copper spray now and then again in February, before bud break. Once buds start swelling, it’s too late. Old-timers say “Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day, those are the times that we should spray.”

Other Timely Chores: Garden clean-up and removal of the trash for recycling is important now. It’s imperative to rake up the fallen leaves and trash under your fruit trees, because this is where adults, larvae, or eggs of pests are spending the winter. And after the trash is removed, spread lots of compost in your garden beds and turn it in. It won’t be long before the first spring crops go in, and everything will be ready and waiting.

Jeff Cox is a Kenwood-based garden and food writer who can be reached at jeffcox@sonic.net.