Snow & Gardens

The winter of 2025-2026 may well be remembered as The Winter of Snow. In the U.S., one potent storm after another hit and dropped copious quantities of the white stuff. In the Far East of Russia, Kamchatka (no stranger to snow) experienced the largest snowfall in 60 years, which left snowdrifts of up to 40 feet. (Here’s a short video.) As impressive as these snowfalls may have been, they are by nature transient. Eventually the snow will be gone and what is underneath will be revealed. If it’s your garden that’s revealed, you may have concerns over whether the snow damaged it or how the snow affected the soil. First of all, snow is not the menace to a garden that you may fear it is. In fact, there are benefits to a snow-covered garden. And getting a garden back in fighting shape requires only a few simple steps.

Somewhat counter-intuitively, snow can provide some clear benefits to your garden:

It can add nutrients – Snow is sometimes called “The Poor Man’s Fertilizer” because snowflakes attract nitrogen and sulfur compounds as they fall through the atmosphere. It is then slowly released into the soil as the snow melts.

It protects plants – Snow provides excellent insulation for over-wintering plants and soil. It can also protect plants from temperature fluctuations that are common in the spring, can regulate the temperature of soil, prevent soil heaving, and can aid in water retention.

It can increase fruit and flower yields – Many plants that produce fruit and flowers require a good freeze in the winter. If the winter is cold enough to produce snow, the plants will respond by gearing up their production. In addition, snow can provide a buffer that keeps buds from popping out too early.

It provides excellent hydration – Plants and soil can suffer from the dryness of winter, especially when the ground is too frozen for watering. A blanket of snow will naturally water the soil as it melts, without needing additional watering.

While snow has its good points, you will need to wait until it’s melted before turning your attention to gardening. The same rule applies to ice. Once the ice and snow are gone, the following steps should lead you to a successful garden.

Clean-up – Gently brush off any snow remaining on plants and discard it away from the garden area. Remove any standing branches, leaves and random litter. Thoroughly dispose of any salt or other deicing agents as they can be deadly to plants.

Assess – Once you have cleaned the area, get in there and assess the condition of your plants. Inspect the leaves and pluck off any dead ones – look for those with mushy texture, or whose color has darkened. If possible, carefully check roots as well. These steps are for winter vegetables as well as other garden plants. For dormant perennials, check the plant crowns for healthy-looking growth.

Trees – To get a proper, full assessment of your trees you’ll have to wait for spring growth to appear. Until then, you can trim up broken branches with a quick clip, but do not prune heavily. At this stage, there is a danger of inadvertently removing live tissue that the tree needs to recover.

Soil – This is the time to get your soil right. The weight of snow can compact your soil, so you will want to aerate it well. Additionally, snow melt can cause soil to become saturated, so make sure you have good drainage. You may want to test your soil at this point – here are some test kit choices for you. Depending on your test results, you may want to add a soil amendment or two (we have an extensive selection here).At the very least, add some microbes - they are an advantage for any soil. Hold off on fertilizing until it’s time to plant. Lastly, you should add a fresh layer of mulch to hold onto moisture and ensure a consistent soil temperature.

Now that you have cleaned, assessed, trimmed, amended, and mulched, all you need to do is wait until the temperature is right for you to plant. Exactly when that is depends on what you are planting and where you live. There are seemingly endless articles and opinions on this topic; you will have to decide for yourself what advice to follow.(Here is a short article on when to plant.) Consulting your local Cooperative Extension Office is always a smart move (Find yours here.) But no matter when you plant, you’ll want to have a soil thermometer – they are on the same page as the soil test kits (here).

Enjoy! 

 Pam