Learn how to insulate plants during winter and what methods you can use to keep roots healthy and thriving in the colder months.

Once you have created the perfect garden, you are going to want to know exactly how to protect it during the winter. If you live in the UK or another country that experiences chilly colder months, you should know how to insulate plants during winter so that they can thrive. However, with so many options available, it can be difficult to determine which method is right for you and your garden. 

Here, we will go through everything you need to know about protecting your garden in the winter – from why it’s important to methods you can use to insulate plants and protect roots when necessary. By the end, you should have a good idea of what to do and why you need to do it. 

Why Winter Protection is Essential for Plants

Winter protection is essential for plants for a very simple reason – lots of plants struggle in the colder months, and many will even die. When you know how to protect them, what steps to take, and what not to do, you will be giving your garden its best chance at flourishing. 

As gardeners, that is exactly what we want. 

Simply leaving plants out for the winter can be incredibly damaging, particularly if the plants involved are not made for cooler climates. If you have tropical or subtropical plants, you will notice even more that protection and insulation is crucial.

Before we get into how to insulate plants and protect roots, we would like to share some other tips for taking care of your garden in the winter. These tips include:

• Brush snow off leaves
• Use windbreaks where necessary (and possible)
• Use stakes to secure plants and prevent bending and snapping
• Ensure there is proper drainage 
• Bring smaller plants indoors if possible (mostly herbs and such)

How to Insulate Your Plants and Protect Roots During Winter

To insulate plants during winter, use mulches like straw or bark to protect roots, wrap pots with fleece, and group potted plants for added warmth. There are all kinds of methods you can use, so let’s learn about them in the sections below.

Top Techniques to Insulate Roots and Plants

Below, we will go through five of the best options that you can use to insulate and protect plants and roots during the winter. Please remember that you need to decide which options work for you and which ones you would like to try, but we will be talking about a few additional products that you can use in the next section, too.

5 effective ways to protect plants and roots during winter:

• Mulching
• Wrapping
• Soil cover
• Container use
• Install windbreaks

Wrapping Plants in Winter

Wrapping plants can be done with fibre mats or any other form of insulation to keep the much-needed warmth in when the cold months begin. This is useful for tropical plants that will suffer when it gets colder, but it can also be used on a variety of other plant types to protect them from the elements.

Soil Cover to Overwinter Plants

You can reduce leaching and keep roots protected from low temperatures via soil cover. This can be achieved with fibre mats cut to the shape of the ground surface, or you can cultivate soil cover through green manure. Green manure is not ‘manure’, but fast-growing plants (such as mustard) that will protect the area.

Windbreaks for Plant and Root Protection

Excessive and cold wings will quickly have an adverse effect on your plants, and you need to take steps to ensure that this does not happen. Creating windbreaks will shield plants from colder temperatures and strong forces to help them thrive.

If you will not be able to use windbreaks for any reason, make sure to grow your plants in an appropriate area. Every garden will have warmer and cooler spots, and spots that are shielded from the elements better than others.

Using Containers to Protect Plants

If you have plant pots, there are several things that you can do to protect them. However, using a plant pot in itself can be seen as a protective measure, since you can move them around and group them together as needed for protection. 

Remember to wrap pots up for insulation if needed, or you can even plunge them to keep them safe. This is when you bury the pot with just the rim sticking out of the ground.

Using Mulch to Protect Root Systems

Finally, mulching is an excellent method for protecting roots and keeping plants safe in the winter. A mulch (there are many different kinds) will be placed round the plant and keep warmth in the soil for months at a time. This will prevent freezing, and the thick layer will also work wonders for stopping any unwanted seedlings from sprouting up in the meantime, since it will block out sunlight. 

To insulate potted plants and protect roots during winter, we recommend using mulch and fibre mats or garden fleece. Both of these options work well to protect plants and keep them warm in the colder months, and mulch can also prevent any unwanted sprouts from popping up due to decreased sunlight getting through to any potential seeds. 

For fibre mats or garden fleeces, these can be wrapped around the plant pot and secured around it to keep warmth in. You can also use greenhouse bubble wrap for this to keep warmth in – they all work well!

Essential Products for Winter Plant Protection

The products you need will always depend on you, your circumstances, and your preferences. Someone with a lot of garden area to protect might choose something different compared to someone with a small amount of area to cover, and plant types will also play a key role. 

For the most part, however, there are some products that we can recommend:

• Mulch – there are many kinds of mulches, and they all do the same basic thing – provide insulation for your roots to protect your plants through the winter. Simply add around 5cm of mulch around the plant and leave space for the stem, and enjoy the benefits.
• Strulch – this is a mineralised straw mulch that can easily be applied to areas instead of a soil or bark-based product. Strulch will last for up to two years, and offer protection for plant roots throughout winter, while also enriching soil and retaining moisture.
• Fibre mats – fibre mats can be made from sheep’s wool or coconut fibre, and both work very well to insulate and protect plants. These are fantastic options for potted plants, as you can wrap the mats around the pot and secure it to keep warmth in throughout the winter.
• Cold frames – perfect for people on a budget with small spaces and small plants. These act similar to a greenhouse, with glass tops and insulated walls to keep heat in and protect your plants throughout the winter.
• Garden cloche – these are fantastic for protecting young plants that are not in a container or a pot, but still need some protection from the elements. Both plastic and glass versions of the popular Victorian product are available.
• Garden fleeces – also called horticultural fleece, this is made from polypropylene unless you opt for plastic-free options (which we would recommend due to environmental factors). Like fibre mats, the fleece can be used to insulate and protect plants through the winter.
• Burlap or hessian – if you have more tropical plants such as bananas, using hessian or burlap to keep a dry, natural insulation around the trunk is crucial in protecting it for the winter.

How West Somerset Garden Centre Can Help Prepare Your Garden

Knowing how to insulate your plants and protect roots during winter is crucial if you put a lot of time and effort towards your garden throughout the year. It doesn’t matter if you grow vegetables and herbs or flowers – protecting them so that they can thrive is important. 

Prepare your garden for winter with expert advice and top-quality products from West Somerset Garden Centre. Visit us today to explore our range of plant protection solutions!

For more information, why not read some of our latest blogs on how to attract and keep wild birds happy in your garden, the perfect way to use wind chimes, or even the right compost for your plants?