Winter Tree Protection and Other Cabin Fever Cures

The unrelenting winter of 2010-2011 has many of us suffering from cabin fever.  Here are a few ideas for garden lovers to break out of the winter doldrums by doing something:

  1. Protect a tree.  Younger trees may be vulnerable to bark damage from mice, rabbits, deer and sunscald.  Unusually deep snow means rabbits and mice can sit on top of snowbanks and chew bark above the tops of already installed tree wraps.  Simply add another white plastic tree wrap above the snow line that overlaps with protection you put on last fall down to the ground level.  These wraps also protect against sunscald from sunlight bouncing off the snow.   We do have tree protectors for sale here at the nursery. 
  2. Thumb through a seed catalog.  It helps get the imagination going in a positive direction.  Order something you’ve never tried before.  It will give you something which you can look forward to in anticipation.
  3. Go for walks on days with low winds, and take notice of which landscape elements you see on other properties that have a nice appearance in winter.  Make a few notes for future additions/revisions to your landscape.
  4. Get on an airplane headed for any direction but north!