Ways to help your local ecosystem in late winter

Seasonally-timed, ecological gardening advice for the Outer Piedmont of the Southeast

Winter isn’t bleak, but seeing it otherwise can take practice. It helps to have an understanding of how much life is stirring out of sight: burrowing toads, firefly larvae hiding under leaves and woody debris, camouflaged swallowtail butterfly chrysalises, brumating lizards, and so much sugar coursing through woody trunks and branches to foment new bud growth. This time of year, I try to soak up the last bits of a landscape marked by negative space, following the flight path of hawks and songbirds much farther than I’ll be able to see once the tree canopy leafs out. The early signs of spring are showing, too: chatty and hungry birds, blooming redbuds, tiny neon leaves on mock oranges, and the first trout lilies and trilliums of the year. One person’s big sea of brown forest is another’s rolling topography studded with copper beeches, braided hickories, shaggy white oaks, soaring hawks, and emergent ephemerals. It’s a matter of time and training your eye on the details.

That, and it’s a matter of not feeling so bleak elsewhere. I’ll admit, it can feel trivial, if not downright tone deaf, writing about the beauty of nature while witnessing such harrowing news here and abroad. While nature offers meaningful respite and reassurance, improving the ecology that we can touch only goes so far. So, like in some past newsletters, I’ll be giving seasonal ecological gardening advice and exploring options for making an impact beyond your yard, because ecology—human and non-human neighbors alike—needs more help than your garden can provide.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Plant trees & shrubs before the weather warms up • Target disruptive plants • Build community to build a better world • Prune certain trees & shrubs, if you want • Propagate woody cuttings

Plant trees and shrubs before the weather warms up

We are in the last weeks of the ideal window to plant trees and shrubs. Planting later is totally possible, but the warmer the weather gets, more active watering is required, and the more plants spend their energy on outward growth rather than roots. In my and my colleagues’ experiences, trees and shrubs planted in the cold season just look and perform better than those planted in the warm season because they can establish resilient root systems before their flush of leaves and flowers.

Perennials are great to plant now through May. I know it looks tacky, but leave a tag or marker in the ground if you’re installing dormant plants so you don’t forget where they are, just until they’re more visible.

How to water new plants in early winter (because forgetting to water will kill a plant)

• Where: water soil deeply for roots to drink from and stretch into; don’t water foliage/stems

• When: morning is best, early afternoon is fine, and night is less idea, but don’t let time of day stop you from saving a plant

• Frequency: if you’re seeing less than 1” of rain/week, water twice/week in the first month after planting, then once/week through spring. Check a couple inches below the soil for moisture if you’re unsure. If that feels dry, water.

• Volume:

• • Hand watering: for 1st year plants, match their pot size in water volume, so gallon-sized plants get 1 gallon of water, 3-gallon plants get 3 gallons of water, etc. Groundcover plants need the surrounding ground to be thoroughly soaked.

  • Irrigating: 1” of water for perennials and 1.5” for trees and shrubs per watering.

  • In a 3 week+ drought, water mature trees: run a hose gently a few feet from the trunk and move it every 20 minutes to cover the circumference.

Manage disruptive plants

In this relatively easy weed management season, when there’s little pressure from perennials, it’s wise to focus on targeting what you can see to lighten your load for the warmer months.

This means evergreen species like winter creeper, english ivy, and liriope/monkey/mondo grass. They’re easier to pull with some moisture in the ground, so do it in the days following rain. Bag and throw them away—they can reroot if left on the ground. I like a Grampa’s Weeder-style tool for spread out liriope because it’s easier on my wrists; other people like a hand hoe or horihori knife. For dense mats, nothing gets in there quite like a Root Slayer. (Not a promo, just good tools.) Dig out eleagnus, nandina, and privet if you can. Cut them back close to the ground to deter seed formation if you can’t.

Build community to build a better world

Our ecology and the political landscape that informs it feel bleak, but seeing possibility within that takes practice. And I’ve noticed this tendency among people in my field to respond to hopelessness with isolation. It sounds kind of like this: “when the world feels bleak, and I don’t know how to help, I know I can make a direct impact through ecological gardening.”

Don’t get me wrong; this isn’t untrue. We can create exponentially positive benefits through how we garden. Tending to the land can be an incredible way to work through grief, practice hope and agency, develop sensitivity and new skills, and hold the beauty of this world close. Building a better world must include ecology, but gardening alone won’t stop climate change or its root issues, like power structures and fascism.

When we act alone, we take on burdens alone. When we act in community, we can more effectively shift burdens onto who is responsible for them. This is true for tenant unions fighting corporate landlords and for neighbors organizing against detention and data center construction. The list of what we can do alone is short (but not unimportant), and together it’s long.

I’m writing this, in part, because I’m hearing so many people express that they can’t bear what’s happening in the world, but don’t know where to begin to change it. And, in part, because the tendency I’m complaining about misses something else that’s really important: what’s possible in the struggle that lies beneath feeling powerless. This struggle is actually where you can find traction.

Sometimes I wish that political therapy existed: a constructive space where people could express vulnerabilities like not knowing what to do or shame for having gotten things wrong in the past. A space to explore feelings of powerlessness with curiosity, parsing out what’s our part in our lack of agency versus what agency isn’t being afforded to us (because we all deserve more autonomy). A place to learn to accept material reality as it is so that we can more effectively change it. Maybe this is just a book club or political affiliation or friend group. Regardless, we all have way more options than we realize, it just takes some practice to recognize them.

If you don’t know where to start, here are some ideas, but know that there are so many more:

• Treat political engagement like finding new friends as an adult: you have to put yourself out there. You might start out in something awkward that doesn’t quite fit, but if you keep learning, you’ll circle the drain around something aligned and eventually find it. Whatever it is you land on will change as you change.

• For any group of people you’re a part of, find something small to work towards or fix and address it collaboratively with the group. This could be a neighborhood sidewalk clean up day or getting snacks for your kid’s soccer team. Now you’re an organizer! Identify a bigger common goal and try that one. Join up with other small groups for other common goals. Now you’re coalition building! Fail, learn, and try again graciously. Small improvements build foundations of trust that we need to address more complicated problems.

• Don’t wave off methods you don’t understand; learn about them instead. Even if you’re skeptical about a general strike, for example, learning about it will open new ways of thinking, unseen opportunities for engagement, and new questions to explore.

• Read books or join/start a book club that will expand your political imagination, ​​learning about amazing things you don’t already know, done by impressive people who have tried more than you’ve tried, from interesting angles you’re less familiar with, challenging norms you didn’t realize were harmful.

Prune certain trees & shrubs, if you want

Native trees and shrubs don’t need to be pruned. You, however, may need to prune them, especially if a branch is imposing in some way (on your house, into a sidewalk, etc.) or to help with edible fruit yields.

Generally speaking, trees and shrubs prefer to be pruned either during the wintry dormant season (ASAP, before they leaf out, but budding is ok) or right after they’re done flowering/fruiting during the growing season. Native species that like to be pruned in the dormant season include blueberry, chickasaw plum, summersweet, St. John’s wort, beautyberry, and elderberry. Non-natives like fig, pomegranate, and Japanese persimmon also get pruned this time of year. Hydrangeas and sweetspire, however, prefer pruning after their flowers dry out (in late summer and fall).

Some rules to follow:

• If you’re just cutting back a limb or two, you can do that at any time of year. 

• To reshape or prune for fruit yields, research individual species to confirm time of year and methods. I like UGA Extension resources, especially this one for blueberries and the American Horticultural Society’s book, Pruning and Training, but there are many options.

• Start by removing dead, dying, and diseased branches, then shape from there.

• Make pruning cuts right above a node (the little bumps where buds or branches form), and cut at an angle that will allow water to flow off the cut, not pool in it.

• Remember that the plant will likely branch out from where you cut. So, if you’re clearing a branch to open up walkable access, cut the branch close to where it connects to the tree so that it doesn’t just regrow into where you don’t want it. Note: please keep sidewalks clear and easily walkable (no branches blocking access or poking passers by in the face), especially for our neighbors who use mobility supports.

• Sanitize your shears (with a swab of rubbing alcohol) between plants or diseased limbs to prevent disease transmission. 

Here’s a recent, good podcast interview on the topic if you want to learn more.

Propagate woody cuttings

A cutting is just a cut section of a branch or stem. If you’re already pruning, or want to save money by growing your own plants, you can often root what you cut. This is also called cloning or asexual propagation, and it’s a technique used to maintain a plant’s sex or specific genetic traits (like bloom color) because those can be subject to change generationally in natural reproduction. It can be done any time of year, but you’re more likely to have success in mild weather.

Beginner friendly natives for this technique include: elderberry, willow, honeysuckle, dogwood, nine bark, beautyberry, viburnum. Conifers (needle-y evergreens) and highbush blueberries (our most common fruiting species) can be harder to find success with, but try if you’re curious!

Here’s how:

Take a branch about a pencil width and make your first cut just below the lowest node (lowest is the side closest to the base of the plant, nodes are the little bumps along the branch where buds and branches form). Count 5 nodes on the cutting and make your top cut just above the top node. Some people like to cut at a flat angle on the bottom side and at a diagonal for the top to keep the orientation clear.

Fill a pot ⅔ with dirt and water to saturate well. Use a leader (pencil or other branch) to poke holes just big enough for your cuttings at least an inch apart. Rooting hormone is optional, better for harder-to-root species. If you’re using it, dab the rooting end of the cutting into rooting powder and tap off excess. Place the cutting vertically in the soil deep enough to bury 3 nodes in the dirt, and gently press dirt around the cutting to ensure good contact, keeping it upright. Water lightly after your cuttings are in.

Cover by placing a plastic jug (with the bottom cut off) over the top or wrap the pot up in a plastic bag. This keeps the humidity high. Make sure the cuttings aren’t touching the cover or each other. Label the cover with the species and date.

Place the covered container in a shady spot outside, set a reminder to check on it in 5-6 weeks (If you’re using the top of a jug, you may need to water periodically in this time), and don’t mess with your cuttings. Test them after this waiting period by gently tugging. If there’s resistance, you’ve likely got roots! From there, remove the cover and start hardening the plants off: exposing them gradually to more sun over the course of a week or two. Plant the cuttings where you want them to grow or repot them in individual containers. Follow the watering guidelines above once you transplant or repot.

I hope this was helpful! I cover more practical ecological tips in my consults. Reach out to me if you’d like more site-specific, in-depth guidance on how you can make your land ecologically healthier, prettier, and lower maintenance or for anything else native plant-related.

Thank you for reading,

Alex Lampert

P.s. Please share this newsletter with your plant nerd friends, that colleague or neighbor you talk to about gardening, the one that got away, and anyone else you think might be interested.

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