Photo: WBZ NewsRadio \ Shari Small
SALEM, N.H. (WBZ NewsRadio) — As the temperature starts to drop in New England keeping plants alive can be difficult.
Tim Wolfe, the owner of Lake Street Garden Center in Salem, New Hampshire, gave WBZ's Shari Small some advice on how to care for outdoor plants as the winter weather approaches. Wolfe said people come to him with concerns about keeping more tender perennials and root-tender plants alive throughout the winter.
One trick he uses is salt marsh hay.
"Usually wait until the end of November, beginning of December, you actually want the ground to freeze a little bit, after it freezes you usually will fluff up the salt marsh hay [and] put a good six-inch layer down and that kind of keeps the ground frozen so you don't get that fluctuation of freeze thaw freeze thaw which can damage tender roots," Wolfe said.
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Another benefit of using salt marsh hay is it contains seeds and prevents weeds from growing.
"You don't end up with all the weeds that you typically would in straw... a lot of people like to put it around roses, like hybrid tea roses," he said. "You're kinda just cleaning up the yards, if you've had any disease problems especially on roses, things like that, rake those leaves up, don't throw them out on the edge of the yard, actually bag them and get them out of your yard."
Wolfe said diseased plants and leaves can withstand winter and continue to disease plants in the following year. Removing the leaves from the lawn helps to conceal the contamination and prevent future spreading.
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