Accessing Freeze Damage

It’s been awhile since I have posted to the GG blog. I have been super-busy but mostly, I’ve been trying to come to terms with the freeze damage that devastated my home landscape.  I thought last winter was bad – but it seems like this year’s stretch of cold weather in January-February was far worse. Gone are a number of plants that had really become well established. Plus, many of the more cold hardy plants in the landscape suffered varying degrees of damage. What a bummer.

I have spent the last few days cleaning up, cutting back dead and dying foliage and pulling plants that obviously won’t be coming back. By the time I was finished it looked pretty bare. Almost like starting with a clean pallet. Then in dawned on me (dramatic pause). This is the perfect opportunity to make some wholesale changes in the landscape. Remove some of the old and tired plant materials and replace them with new, perhaps a little more cold hardy selections. So I guess what I’m saying is – there’s not anything I can do about the situation so I might as well make the best of it. FYI – I hate that cheerful, lemons to lemonade BS – but what the heck.

As a side note. Here’s a little video I put together on how to determine if a plant is still alive.