The old-fashioned snow catchers that used to be seen on many roofs have practically disappeared from the American scene. As a result, there is nothing to stop snow from sliding down on to the foundation plants and crushing them, in many cases so badly that they will never recover. So take special precautions both in placing the plants and in selecting the proper kinds.
Sometimes additional winter protection of some sort must be provided. If your roof has no gutter or drain to catch the water from melting snow it will drip off the edge and may then freeze on the plants until the ice load becomes heavy enough to break or crack the branches. By planting them out from the house beyond the drip line, you can help solve the ice problem, but not that of snow falling from the roof.
Snow Protection
There are many ways of protecting your plants against snow load injury. One is to go out frequently during a snowstorm with an ordinary broom and gently tap or shake the plants until the snow falls off.
Another is to take fine mesh wire and nail it on top of stakes driven in around a plant to form a sort of roof over it. You may consider this an unsightly structure to have in front of your house, but it is economical. The protected plant may have cost you only four or five dollars but each year its value as a specimen will increase.
True, you are not going to sell it, but remember that if the main plant in a fully grown group is ruined, it will be difficult and costly to replace it with a specimen large enough to fit in with the rest of the planting. So if you want to protect your investment, having to look at an undesirable wire mesh structure for a few winter months is not much to pay for the money saved.
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