Winter watering: Essential steps to keep your gardens thriving

Murphy’s Law says if you wash your car, it will rain. Same goes for planning a garden segment on winter watering, winter will show up and we will get a dusting of snow.

However, we aren’t expecting significant precipitation that will benefit our gardens so put winter watering on your to-do list when it warms up again.

Because Colorado has dry air, low precipitation, and big swings in temperatures, winter watering is crucial. Long, dry periods during fall and winter will cause injury or death to parts of the root system of trees, shrubs, and perennials.

If you have a newly planted garden or lawn, the plants won’t have a well-established root system. A newly planted tree can take up to a year to get its root system established and water is crucial to that. Also, evergreens don’t go dormant in the winter and will lose moisture through their needles. This is why plants rely heavily on additional winter water.

Water when it’s above 40 degrees and when the ground isn’t frozen. Mid-day watering is best, so the water has time to soak in before possibly freezing at night. Some areas on the east and north side of my garden are still under a little blanket of snow or ice so those areas are ok, but the gardens that are exposed to the sun all day, every day need watering.

A south facing garden will receive heat reflected off the house, walls and fences while the north side is subject to our drying winter winds. Winter watering is a labor of love, this is not the time to turn your sprinklers on. Use a hose, watering can or bucket and please make sure to disconnect your hoses and drain them when you’re done.

Now through March and April continue to keep an eye on your soil and how much precipitation we receive. If a month goes by and we haven’t received decent snow or rain, water one to two times per month. And then naturally, it will finally snow.