Winter protection

Being from the north, I am always trying to think up inventive ways to protect plants, especially with the winterkill from last year when there was very little snow cover. I have some half cement blocks and was wondering what anyone thought about using them around plants and filling them with leaves. I would think the sun would heat the cement, but am not sure that would necessarily be a good thing. Anyone ever tried this?

myrhes, I am not sure. I use stones and broken cement in very early spring to help get a head-start in my veggie garden, but I haven't done so in the way you suggest.

The conventional wisdom for us is to wait until the plants are dormant and the soil starting to freeze (which sometimes is early January), then put a heavy layer of mulch over top of the beds. Our problem is the soil continually freezes and thaws all winter, so that most plants are heaved out of the ground.

I use about 6" of shredded leaves over all my beds. By the end of winter, it might be 1" deep that I leave in place, just fluffing it so that water can penetrate.

If you do try it, be sure to let us know how it goes! I had a lot of winter-kill this past winter, but snow-cover from mid-November through early March. I wasn't able to get leaves picked up, much less shredded by then, so some beds didn't get mulched well. If it happens again, I need some alternate strategies!

Hi, I use those round white plastic things to hold in the chopped leaves. If the blocks are grey, I do not think that they would absorb a lot of heat (might be a bit different if they were black) I would put down the blocks and mulch after the ground is frozen hard and I do not think that it would allow a frost heave. I am on the edge of Madison and the lake has some affect on keeping the area warm-but we had so little snow last year, that I had some frost heave on daylilies that got morning sun and were not mulched. I plan on chopping a whole lot more oak leaves this season!! Just in case it is another strange WI winter!

Lupinelover: I will have a great source of chopped leaves this year (my friend bought a blower, vacuum, mulcher) - but, to be honest, the only plants I ever mulch are roses (marcia-I also use the white rounds filled with leaves for the roses). But I am going to try the 6" of shredded leaves and see how that works. I am also going to try the cement blocks on some plants just to see what happens. Thanks for the good advice.

I live in zone 5 and I use everything at my disposal to help protect all my beds, including pine boughs, leaves and nursery bought mulch. Also, it has been suggested that any snow you have available in your yard should be moved from where it is not needed and shoveled unto beds and plants to help insulate them.

I have six cinder blocks I planted a couple of different plants in last year and during the fall they became invisible because of leaves and snow that covered them. This past spring I was amazed to see the plants come back. This fall I'm going to experiment with another plant and see if it too survives. As an added note, I painted these cinders dark green. The two holes in these blocks are not that large and yet I had full size plants emerge plus a toad or two.

This time I'll try a yellow Dianthus. If nothing else experiments are interesting and we always learn something from them. Good luck Myhres and have a really happy winter.

Purpleice, what plants did you have planted in your cinder blocks last fall? Were the cinder blocks sitting on bare earth? Did the plant roots extend into the earth? I have a lot of cinder blocks sitting around and some low spots in my yard.....hhhhmmmmmm

The plants were two different types of Alyssum, planted in mushroom compost. The blocks were sitting on bare earth with newspaper underneath to prevent weeds from intruding. Both plants came back. I think that the very thick cement walls of cinderblocks protect whatever is planted inside because of the insulation it provides and the heat it attracts from the sun. Maybe that is the reason good solid old fashioned homes used to be built using these blocks. I don't know.

If you have cinder blocks use them for something, don't throw them out. You can even paint them and be artistic about it. It's fun.