Episode 3: Growing Bigger Garlic and Overwintering Fruit Trees, Shrubs & Strawberries

Tara from Zone 8

A: When you're preparing your beds for planting, always add a light dose of fertilizer. I like to use Onions Alive! or Root Crops Alive! if I have them, or at the very least, a light touch of nitrogen that'll help the plant get off to a good fertile start. 

Planting time is the next thing you need to consider. In Zone 8, you have a pretty wide window. For your biggest bulbs, the best time to plant would be from late October through November. 

Variety selection is also important. You did well by planting softneck garlic because they tend to do better in the warmer zones. But you can also grow hardnecks. You're on that border where you can grow hardnecks in the porcelain group, like Music or Great Lakes. Once you have your variety selected, always plant the largest cloves: Larger cloves will give you larger cloves. 

Spacing is also important. You don't want your garlic plants too close because then they compete for the food, water and light. For larger heads of garlic, I like a 6 in. spacing and mulch right away to keep moisture levels consistent and keep winter weeds down. Then water them right when you're finished planting so those garlics initiate rooting quickly. 

The following spring, when plants start to actively grow, you can feed them again. You can use liquid or granular food, whatever you have. And if you're watering a bunch, you'll be leaching that fertilizer out quicker. So, you could split your fertilizer applications up through the season. After that, through the summer, just keep it weeded and watered. 

Finally, if you're growing hardneck garlic, cut the scapes off. The scape is the flower stem that comes up at the top and it'll curl. I cut mine off pretty quickly because I like to eat them. A lot of people eat them. And the longer you leave it on, the harder and woodier and more unpalatable it will be. If you leave them on for the life of the garlic, it cuts way down on the size of your bulbs and cloves.

Denice and Jeff in Zone 7

A: This is a common question right now. First, don't be too anxious to bring in or protect these pots. Let them experience several light freezes so it sends the plants into dormancy. The apple tree in particular will lose its leaves. Blackberries are sometimes more reluctant. After they've gone into dormancy, you can bring them into an unheated garage, as long as you’re able to move the pots.  

But make sure you keep an eye on the watering. You won't have to water them all the time, but when they're in the garage, they're not getting any outside rain.  

The other thing you can do is pull them up against the side of your house and seal them in with leaves to protect the pots. You really don't want the roots’ base in the pots to freeze. A shady spot is best because you don't want that winter sun cycle. You know: The freezing and thawing that really contributes to tissue death in the plant. 

If these pots are too big to bring in, and you have them out in the garden, you can dig a hole and set the pot down in there. And that will be particularly good for the apple or the blackberry. But sometimes they're a little less hardy. You may want to take it out of the pot or tip the pot over and just cover it with leaves—I’ve done that with fig trees and it works great. Be careful doing that with young apple trees, though, because rabbits love to eat the bark.  

You can wrap the blackberry bush with some fabric and then cover it with leaves, to make sure it has just a little protection. And just make sure they're staying watered through the winter.

Ruth in Zone 9 

A: In Zones 8-10, you don't really have to do much winter protection. You might want to mulch for soil retention. And if they’re newly planted plants, mulching would be good for preventing frost heaving. You want to wait until the plants are dormant, and that requires them to get frozen several times. Usually where I am in southern Ohio, that would be December or late November. It all depends on the weather. 

When the plants are finally dormant, you can use 2-4 in. of straw for mulch. Just spread it out over the bed, nestle it in around the plants, add a little bit on the top of the plants. If you want, you can also use a frost blanket. You just open it up and lay it out over your patch and pin it down. 

For strawberries in containers, in Zones 8-10 they’ll be fine. In colder zones you should protect them by putting them in your unheated garage or something like that. Just keep them out of inclement weather.