Preparing boxwood for winter will help preserve a beautiful garden design

Boxwood is an evergreen ornamental plant. Many gardeners consider this shrub to be slow-growing, but this opinion is erroneous. Like all plants, boxwood responds very well to organic fertilizing and soil moisture. With proper care, boxwood grows 10 cm per year. In the spring, near the boxwood, it is necessary to sow siderates, for example, rye or mustard. In the fall, they are mowed down to additionally mulch and fertilize the bushes. Every two years, nitrogen and magnesium-containing fertilizers are applied under the bushes. Thanks to this feeding, the boxwood will form a large number of deciduous buds and build up a powerful root system, which will allow the shrub to better endure the winter cold. In addition to making top dressing for boxwood, you need to carry out a number of preparatory measures so that the southern plant overwinters well in a cold climate.

Winter pruning

It is necessary to carry out formative pruning of boxwood in the middle of summer, when the first stop of growth of an evergreen shrub comes. At this time, sap flow inside the shoots has not stopped yet, and the boxwood will still enter the active growth stage. Podwinny pruning is carried out in late October - early November, when two periods of growth have already passed, but severe frosts have not yet come. At this time, young shoots are cut in order to start the growth of young shoots after the onset of spring. With this pruning, up to 2 cm of branches are removed.

The basal shoots are cut to the third young bud, if branching is necessary. Pruning is carried out to the second young bud if it is planned to leave the shoot without branching.

Covering material preparation

In summer mulching, the boxwood bush is covered with leaves and grass. With the onset of cold weather, such mulch will rot. Therefore, if you have not formed the boxwood in a stamping method, then you cannot leave the leaves under the bush. Decay can spread to boxwood leaves, and then the affected branches will need to be removed.

After harvesting the leaves and grass, the boxwood bush cannot be left without mulch. It is covered with coniferous spruce branches and peat. If there is no spruce or pine spruce branches, use only peat as mulch.

Since boxwood is an evergreen, it can “burn out” in the winter sun. In winter, when the sun's rays hit the shrub, its shoots wake up for a short time. Boxwood roots are in cold ground and cannot deliver nutrients to awakened leaves. Because of this, the foliage turns yellow and withers. To protect boxwood bushes from such burnout, they are covered with a cloth or burlap.

It is important that the fabric is breathable and not white, otherwise it will attract heat. Because of this, boxwood can also "burn out". Cover the shrubs with black material such as agrofibre.