Wintertime in New England is a tough time for any landscape. You can prepare your landscape as much as possible for the cold winter months and tough storms that will come (if you haven’t already, check out our article about fall to dos), but all of that can go to waste if you are not careful and mindful of your landscape during a storm.
It is important to plan ahead before a storm, and even when designing a landscape, to figure out proper places to push, blow, or shovel snow. You should stake the hardscape around your property before the winter season to give your snow removal team the ability to know where roadways and paths are during a storm so they do not plow, blow, or shovel into your landscape, tearing up grass, perennials, and shrubs. Even if protected by string, mesh, or some type of structural box, your snow removal team should avoid disturbing your shrubs by placing snow on top of them.
If your shrubs were not tied and heavy snow weighs them down, you may be tempted to go out there and shake the snow off the shrub to help it stand up straight and avoid damage. This may actually be detrimental to your shrubs and stress them out more. Your shrubs will naturally come back into place when the snow melts. They will come up gradually with the slow rate of the melting snow and hitting them with a broom and quickly popping them back into place may stress the shrub and/or lead to breakage.
