Table of Contents:

• How Winterizing Container Gardens are Different
• Planning Ahead Tips
• Last Minute Tips to Protect Your Plants
• About Pots and Containers that Can Freeze
• If Your Plants Freeze and Your Pot Breaks
  

With this wacky weather we’ve been having, there is no telling what Jack Frost or Father Winter will bring here in Seattle. Here in the PNW, it’s either a La Nina or El Nino – I can never keep track. The typical Pacific Northwest winter means cold, wet and maybe snow for a couple of days – or a couple of weeks. Even though I grumble about it, it’s still cakewalk compared to some areas in the US.

So, here are some winterizing tips for the miniature garden but this is good advice for any kind of garden container if you’ve chosen the “right plant for the right place” that is, and are using hardy plants, suitable for your area.

How Containers are Different

When a plant is in a container, its roots only have the walls of the pot to protect them. When a plant is planted in-ground, it has Mother Earth to help insulate and protect its roots.

It’s this difference that is often overlooked, and we end up losing our marginally hardy, container plants to the winter weather. The rule of thumb in the garden world is to choose container plants that are at least one zone hardier than your local USDA zone to compensate.

For Overwintering In-Ground Miniature Gardens, see this blog here.

Planning Ahead to Overwinter

• Keep an eye on the weather reports and stockpile what you need ahead of time so you can react quickly, without hassle. Even better, make sure you have what you need on-hand in early fall so you don’t have to scramble at the last minute.

• Plant in the biggest pot you can. Big pots don’t freeze as fast and the extra soil insulates the roots.

• To help insulate the pot, you can plant the whole pot right in the ground for the winter, with the foliage above the earth of course.

Last Minute Tips to Protect Your Plants

• Wrap the whole pot in bubble wrap with a thick layer of fallen leaves between the plastic and the pot. The leaves will insulate it and the plastic will keep the leaves intact for the season. Cover this with wrapping of burlap to hide it and that can work as another layer of insulation as well. Have fun decorating this big ball o’burlap with eyeballs and arms for Halloween, leaf garland for Thanksgiving, and twinkly lights for the winter holidays. Use the leaves as compost in your veggie bed when you take it apart in the springtime.

• Move the pot beside the house or under a covered porch. This can be a temporary fix to get through a cold spell OR if you want to keep it here for the winter season, make sure the light requirements are close to what the plant needs. (Full sun plants will get leggy in the shade, shade plants will burn when that sun decides to come out.) Make sure it gets enough water throughout the winter too. There is a dry-zone next to any building or house so any pot store there for the winter will need regular watering.

• For sudden temperature dips, arctic blasts or polar vortexes, you can cover the whole container garden with evergreen boughs, cardboard, blankets or similar. This is only temporary as you’ll be blocking the light to the pot. Be sure to take them off promptly after the dip in temp. This idea is also great for overnight temperature dips too.

For Overwintering In-Ground Miniature Gardens, see this blog here.

About Weatherproof or Winter-proof Containers

• Choose the high-fired pots that can withstand freezing. The garden pots from Vietnam or China are usually high fired, fairly freeze proof, and don’t absorb the moisture.
  
• If you’re looking to save a buck with terra cotta pots, they’ll freeze and break if it the temps dip below 32 degrees. It’s the moisture in the walls of the pot that freezes, expands and breaks the pot. Leave your terra cotta for your annuals. Empty them out now, and put them away in a dry spot for the winter, preferable indoors or a covered shed.

• Keep watering that pot! Even if it is freezing outside, the contained environment will need moisture and the frigid temps will dry-out the plant’s roots just like your freezer does. This also applies to your in-ground evergreens too, check them during the dry spells to make sure the soil stays at least damp. You want the roots to stay frozen, not freeze-dried.

A lot of this information came from my twin brother, Joel Cross, he works at a professional landscaping company just outside of Toronto, Ontario, Canada – the land where your nose hairs freeze! (Which is why I’m in Seattle. ;o)

If All Else Fails

But, if all else fails and you do loose some plants or a container, there is an upside: you get to go shopping for a new container and you get to try some new plants next spring! How is that for optimism? :o)

Got insight or info to contribute? Leave a comment below or email us through our website here.

Here’s a post about winterizing your in-ground miniature gardens, click here.

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