64 
House (&° Garden 
THE WISDOM OF MID-WINTER PLANTING 
Not yust A7iother Attempt to Prolong the Gardener s Labors but a 
Way to Lessen the High Cost and Hurry of Work in Spring and Fall 
RICHARD H. PRATT 
M ID-WIXTER planting is a tussle 
between the gardener and a more or 
less unwilling season. The plants them¬ 
selves, being dormant then, are ready for 
moving, but the ground in the average 
climate of these States from December to 
March is generally reluctant to receive 
them as it should. At one time it is the 
consistency of rock and at another the con¬ 
sistency of jelly, and it is often under snow. 
X^either frozen ground nor mushy ground 
offers a pleasant place for plants, and 
certainly neither assures great chance of 
success; for planting soil, particularly in 
winter, should be friable; it should crumble 
easily in the hand so that it can sift in 
readily among the roots of the plant and 
leave no air spaces or water pockets to give 
devastating performances. This means 
that if planting is to be done in mid-winter 
the ground must be in proper condition to 
take care of it both during and after the 
operation. This can be done, and the way 
it can. be done is by covering the planting 
area with an adequate mulch before the 
ground has frozen, removing it just before 
the actual planting, and re-covering the 
area afterward to prevent frost working too 
rapidly into the loose ground. Evergreens 
should be protected from the drying winds 
after planting, trees and large shrubs 
should be guyed securely, and while some 
small ground cover plants can be moved 
safely, herbaceous things generally should 
be left for gentler seasons. 
In brief, these are the precautions which 
must be taken for mid-winter planting. 
While they add something to the methods 
of spring and fall, the increased difficulty is 
as nothing to the advantage which planting 
at this season affords. That is, there is an 
advantage, and a great one, if your regular 
planting seasons are crowded, or if the 
coming of winter finds you with your fall 
planting uncompleted. And as most en¬ 
thusiastic amateurs and most landscape 
architects live through hectic springs and 
falls, despairing from one minute to the 
next of their chances for getting their 
planting done in time, and as much fall 
planting is carried over until spring just 
because fall couldn’t be stretched out 
indefinitely, there is much to be said in 
winter’s favor as a time for getting plants 
in the ground. 
E ven when winter planting is not done 
to meet an emergency it can still be 
considered a worth while undertaking. 
For one thing, large tree moving can be 
done then more safely, if not more easily, 
than at any other time; for another, labor 
is usually easier to get and harder to keep 
busy; and for both of these reasons some 
nurseries will sell trees and plant them for 
less money than during the more popular 
buying seasons. 
Mulch is the most important factor in 
mid-winter planting; without it, in fact, 
planting at this season would be almost 
impossible and extremely uncertain in its 
results. It is simply a protective covering 
to prevent frost from entering the ground, 
consisting of dry leaves or manure, straw, 
corn husks, salt hay, or any non-conductor 
of this type. Even a small place should 
produce a sufficient quantity of dry leaves 
to take care of its winter planting, but it 
will necessitate thrifty accumulation—no 
carting away in bursts of enthusiastic 
clean-ups jior any pungent fall bon-fires. 
Mulching with manure on a large scale 
these days is apt to be an expensive affair, 
but there is hardly a better material. Corn 
husks need to be used in greater quantity 
than anything else because they offer a 
looser blanket than other mulches. Straw 
is splendid material, and a bale of straw 
will go a long way and not add greatly to 
the cost of the planting. 
T he mulch should be placed over the 
entire planting area, extending slightly 
beyond the actual limits to prevent frost 
creeping under the edges into the ground 
which is to be dug up later. The thickness 
of the mulch depends altogether upon the 
severity of the winter in the locality of the 
mulch itself. Where the winters are not 
unusually violent and frost does not pene¬ 
trate usually to greater depths than 12'''or 
18", heavy manure will serve very well at a 
thickness of 6"; light straw manure at from 
8" to 10", and leaves, straw and salt hay at 
from 10" to 12". The mulch can be held in 
place by a guard of chicken wire fixed on 
short stakes, by brush, boards, or by a 
small quantity of earth thrown over it. 
If the work is to be single plantings of 
trees or shrubs it will be necessary, of course, 
to cover only the circles of the prospective 
holes; but it must be kept in mind that 
even the smallest evergreen or deciduous 
tree should have a hole prepared for it at 
least 3' in diameter, and that single large 
shrubs will require holes 2' or more in 
diameter. Where the planting is to be done 
in closely planted groups the most practical 
method is to cover the whole area; for it is 
always possible in mass plantings that it 
may be necessary to shift individual 
plants from their planned positions, even 
slightly, to take the best advantage of their 
size and shape and get from them their 
most effective composition. 
Both ends of the transplanting operation 
must be mulched; the plant as well as the 
planting space, for it is necessary to keep all 
the ground involved in good working con¬ 
dition. The exception to this is the case 
of the large tree which is to be moved with 
a frozen ball, and here only the ball itself 
should be allowed to freeze. Small decidu¬ 
ous trees need not be moved with a ball of 
earth, but after they attain a trunk dia¬ 
meter of more than 3" or 4" it begins 
to be a wise precaution. Evergreens, with 
their fibrous roots, and such deciduous 
trees as the Liquidambar, Tulip, Beech, 
and Dogwood, should always be moved 
with their roots encased and undisturbed 
in their original earth. There will always 
be root ends and rootlets which extend 
beyond the ball, and as these are extremely 
important parts of the tree’s anatomy they 
should be protected and preserved. There¬ 
fore a trench should be dug around the tree 
just before freezing weather sets in and the 
root ends disengaged at a time when this 
can be done without damage. This trench 
may be filled with loose earth and mulched, 
or it may be merely mulched; the object 
being to keep the earth from freezing around 
these sensitive rootlets and also to make 
transplanting easier. In some cases where 
trees have been moved with frozen balls it 
has been found possible to do away with 
digging a trench around the ball in advance 
by simply mulching the ground about this 
same circumference. This makes for easy 
digging where easy digging is necessary. 
The new holes for large trees might also be 
prepared in advance of freezing weather 
with a considerable saving of labor. 
W HEREVER the solidly frozen ball is 
not used in transplanting trees and 
shrubs, the earth, as stated before, must 
be of a fine enough texture to allow it to 
enter aU the crevices of the roots and com¬ 
pact firmly. Planting anything in frozen 
clods of earth is inviting almost certain 
disaster to the plant. Then, after the plant 
has been put in its new position, the earth 
packed about its roots, and guy wires 
attached (if it is of any size), the mulch 
which has been removed for the planting 
operation should be replaced. Eor the freez¬ 
ing which takes place in this lately dis¬ 
turbed ground is dangerous. It causes a 
heaving which lifts the plant, creating air 
pockets about the roots which sooner or 
later are bound to do irreparable damage. 
Tree and shrub transplanting by these 
methods in mid-winter can be quite as 
successful as it would be in the spring or 
fall. Discretion is more necessary, perhaps, 
but no greater skill is required. Certainly, 
not nearly so much skill is required as in 
mid-summer planting, where great careful¬ 
ness and high speed must be combined, and 
{Continued on page 148 ) 
