Ep. 161 Winter Weather and How to Protect Your Plants | #GoodGrowing
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris Enroth, horticulture educator with the University of Illinois Extension coming at you from Macomb, Illinois, and we have got a snowy show for you today, folks. I am stuck at home right now. It's snowing outside. It's getting cold.
Chris Enroth:Winter has finally arrived. So we're gonna be talking about snow today and winter. And what does that mean for your plants? And what can we do right now to protect our plants, especially when we're going out, we're shoveling, we're throwing down salt, trying to get rid of some of that ice, whether it's on the sidewalk or a branch. And you know I'm not doing this by myself.
Chris Enroth:I am joined as always every single week by horticulture educator Ken Johnson in Jacksonville. Hey, Ken.
Ken Johnson:Hello, Chris. We haven't got as much snow as you, so we're still in the office.
Chris Enroth:I know. I can see that that you're still able to go into the office and you're not I'm I'm hiding back where I was in 2020, you know, away from my family trying to steal a few moments away to do a little bit of work. So, yeah, it's it's bringing back memories.
Ken Johnson:Back back when we opened up this can of worms.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. Yeah. Now we'll close that can right now and put it away and not think about it. Yep. So well, Ken, I I'm glad to hear that you're at least able to get in the office, but it's about to get really cold in your neck of the woods.
Chris Enroth:Correct?
Ken Johnson:Yes. It's a slushy mess outside. So it could get could get interesting. I think so people will be listening this Friday. So I think, you know, may change from today on Tuesday, but Mhmm.
Ken Johnson:You're talking below zero next week.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. Should be potential potential highs that are below zero. Yes. So that's that's why we have the beards, everyone.
Ken Johnson:Grow your grow your beards quickly. You got a couple more days.
Chris Enroth:Ladies and gentlemen, you heard it here first. Grow your beards. So I I guess, Ken, today, we're gonna give a couple tips for folks that maybe like me. I pretty soon after recording this, we're gonna have to go outside, shovel some snow. We got a couple limbs that are really weighed down because kinda like you, it started out as rain, but then it froze.
Chris Enroth:And so we have kind of a double layer of ice on branches and then wet snow on top of that. And so we do have a lot of lower limbs down. With that cold weather, it's going to bring a lot of wind. And so I'm I'm worried we're gonna get some some branch breakage out there. But maybe we need to distinguish a little bit here.
Chris Enroth:I have a combination, as I mentioned, of ice and snow on our limbs. But when we talk about the weight of something on a tree limb, ice and snow, they're they're similar. They're both water in a frozen form, but it's different in how we handle it. Could you describe a little bit about that difference?
Ken Johnson:Yeah. So so both of them are gonna weigh down branches and and trees and and whatnot. With snow, that is something you can try to remove if it's safe. You know, if you've broken branches hanging over your head or something like that, you don't want to do this. But snow, if you've got snow weighing down your your branches and stuff, can go out and and gently brush that off, brushing it up to remove that, help relieve that weight, then those branches should, you know, come back up, spring back up.
Ken Johnson:So again, depending on how far they're laying down, be careful when they start removing that. Ice on the other hand, that's going be kind of encasing those branches and you start breaking that off, you run the risk of doing more damage to that branch than that ice is going to cause. So the the branch may become a little more brittle. You start banging on that, breaking that off, you're going to potentially damage those branches. So if it's ice, let it melt on its own.
Ken Johnson:And whatever happens happens, just leave it.
Chris Enroth:Mhmm. And and I'll add that, especially when it comes to snow and you maybe it's a limb that's above your head and you're you go to shake it off. One thing that I was taught to taught to me is you never wanna pull down. Don't pull down on it because that you might be at the literal breaking point of that branch with that snow, and then you add a little bit more downward force and it snaps. So instead, if you can get, like, a broom or something, you just push up.
Chris Enroth:Push up on that limb. A lot of that snow will shut off and just just shake it as Ken described like that. So be careful when it comes to limbs, especially big ones above your head. Don't pull down on them. Push up on them.
Ken Johnson:And our trees have you know, trees have been around for millions of years and had snow on them for millions of years. So Mhmm. You know, you may lose some branches here and there, but for the most part, they will survive.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. They've they are adapted to this. Yep. Mhmm. So and there's also some trees that are a bit more well adapted to this, namely some of our our evergreens, but also our younger trees.
Chris Enroth:I I I've mentioned on the show, I've got two brand new trees in the ground out in the yard. They're leaning over, but I'm not worried about them because they have very flexible woody fibers because they're young, and they're that's they're they're supposed to be able to do that. But our evergreens can. Right? They are also fairly flexible.
Chris Enroth:And they have to be because they keep their leaves over the winter and they that's a little bit extra weight for them.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. When you think about your conifers, you know, we typically think of where do they live, you know, if they come up in the mountains and stuff where we've got a lot of snow. So they've I think another thing, they've got to be evolved for most conifer most conifers that have snow load and stuff on them. So they're going be more flexible a lot of times compared to deciduous trees. That cone shape that they've got, when we think of our typical conifer, that's going to help shed snow.
Ken Johnson:When you think about our deciduous trees that have more ball shaped, that's going to catch more snow on it than a conifer, that cone shape will. Their needles are kind of smooth, so it's going to help shed snow as well. So again, adapted to kind of living in snowy conditions and and dealing with that. So someone and you don't have to be quite as concerned with they can still get loaded up with snow and ice and and have limb breakage, but that's probably not going to be happening happening as much as with more deciduous trees.
Chris Enroth:Yep. And I I think it it really does matter too in terms of that that branch angle of of that limb and sort of tie this in with conifers. Probably the one where I see a lot of damage is we have a white pine in our backyard that lost its central leader many years ago, and that means several of the side branches have tried to take over. So there we have these multiple tops to the singular tree. And whenever we get weather like this, we lose one of those larger limbs in that tree because because, one, we've lost that pyramidal structure, and, two, those branch angles created by those competing branches, they're they're more acute.
Chris Enroth:They're they're they're they're narrower, which creates puts a lot of pressure or force on a kind of that singular spot, that lower part of the limb. And so we get easier breakage in that case. And so I that's another thing to consider. Maybe not today or tomorrow or this week, but if you do go out and you prune, so you do some winter pruning, a good idea would be to look for some of those those branch angles, and we call them crotch angles. We want them to be wide.
Chris Enroth:You know, 90 degrees is ideal. Doesn't usually happen, but a lot of the narrower ones, so a narrow crotch angle, which is very common in, an ornamental pear tree, which if it is anyone has ever had one of those in their yard, you know weather like this, you're picking up branches, assuredly. So, ruin your trees, favoring those wider branching angles, and try to eliminate some of those more narrow or acute angled crotch angles.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. Those more perpendicular branches are are stronger. It's just the more perpendicular, the stronger that attachment is and more weight they can hold. It's physics. And I and I have seen some stuff with especially with more of the shrubs where if you've got some of those that have really narrow, they're more columnar type, you can tie that stuff up and help support it a little bit.
Ken Johnson:But again, little late for that now, but once things thaw out a little bit, go out and do that if they're predicting more snow Yeah. At some point.
Chris Enroth:I think that as as we just kicked off recording, I got a text from my wife who's upstairs. She said, I think we're getting eight more inches of snow in a few days. So, hey, maybe you should go out and start. You can tie these burlap strips around like arborvitae or like a like a column or juniper if you have any of those. That will help reduce the snow or ice that can't accumulate on them, thus reducing the any breakage of those limbs.
Chris Enroth:So I without a doubt, seeing the type of weather, how it's shaped up from rain to ice to snow and heavy wind. I know, Ken, you and I are both gonna get phone calls this spring about arborvitae who have, like, lost half half of a side or something. You know? So we're I'm expecting that to happen.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. Probably. Job security.
Chris Enroth:Job security. That's why I keep sending the deer out so I they'll also eat the arborvitae. Again, job security. Well, Ken, another job to do out when we are working removing snow is where do we put this snow? Are when you're shoveling snow or pushing snow, do you have a spot, specific spot where you push it to?
Chris Enroth:Do you try to avoid pushing it to any particular areas? What's your game plan when it comes to moving snow?
Ken Johnson:So we've got a gravel driveway, so I try to shovel it as little as possible.
Chris Enroth:As as little as possible. Yes.
Ken Johnson:So we usually pack it down nice and good. And and for the most part, I mean, here in Jacksonville, we don't usually get a tremendous amount of snow. But there have been a few times with your head to shovel, then I'm picking up rocks out of the yard for the next six months. But usually, I try to do it, you know, basically where that snow is. I try not to have one giant pile of stuff.
Ken Johnson:I try to distribute that out. The problem with if you got giant piles, you see this a lot in parking lots when they're just plowing that out. They're pushing it up against plants. You know, depending on how hard they're pushing, they may be damaging, breaking branches, damaging that trunk if they're the plow blade is getting up against that. Same thing if you're shoveling if you're shoveling stuff under one pile and you've got plants under there, can run the risk of smothering those and damaging those, especially for woody plants.
Ken Johnson:So when you're shoveling, be mindful of where you're putting that. You don't wanna pile that on top of or or on plants, especially woody plants. Mhmm.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. And that that's why and when I did landscaping, I remember we did a landscaping job for, like, a a Dick's Sporting Goods, and we did the parking lot. And we did it, you know, the tree in the parking island, and then we did all these shrubs and things around the tree. And we're all like, this stuff is not gonna survive winter. This is gonna get snow piled on top of it, and then it's just gonna be smooshed.
Chris Enroth:The the tree will be lucky to survive. So it you do have to be very careful. Ken mentioned, those woody plants piling that snow on top of them because it's you know, a snowflake is very delicate. It's beautiful. It's it's a nature's a wondrous miracle work.
Chris Enroth:But when you get all these snowflakes on top of each other and smooshed together and you create a snowball, ice ball, whatever, it's heavy, and it can hurt when flung at someone's head. So, it can hurt your plants too. Don't smack pile everything on top of your shrubs.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. And a lot of times, not so much with with residential areas on on driveways and stuff. If sidewalks maybe of a salt, if you're putting salt down and then you're shoveling that up and you're plying that hole in one spot, you're just building up that salt in that one area. Whereas if you distribute it more, yeah, you're getting salt other places, but it's a little more spread out and you're not getting quite as concentrated in one area.
Chris Enroth:That's right. Well, Ken, you've brought up the s word, salt. So there's a lot to cover when it comes to deicing salt. And I I I guess kicking things off, the primary we'd look at sort of formulas, the chemical of salt is sodium chloride. And if I could be wrong.
Chris Enroth:If anyone works for a highway department or anything, please let me know. But primarily rock salt is sodium chloride, which is can be quite damaging to plants. And I as Ken had mentioned, I've seen this firsthand where people have piled snow maybe up on a corner somewhere of the sidewalk. And even though it you know, snow is water, there's still enough salt concentrated in that area to damage that turf grass or that shrub or whatever it is that's growing right there because salt acts as a desiccant. It pulls water away from living cells just like, you know, you could kill a snail by pouring salt on it.
Chris Enroth:It does the same thing to plant cells. So salt can be very damaging. And so reiterating what Kennen said, piling up in one spot, especially, you know, if you salted before that, you're concentrating that salt into one location. Creates higher levels of sodium chloride in that that spot.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. In addition to to plant damage, you get salt in the in the soil. There's sodium ions. Like salt will dissociate when it gets dissolved in water. Mhmm.
Ken Johnson:Remember back to to chemistry back in the day.
Chris Enroth:That's you used a lot of big words there, Ken.
Ken Johnson:Nightmares tonight. Yeah. But the if you get high sodium levels that can cause issues with the soil, prevent clumping of the soil, which can lead to increased compaction, which is going to reduce aeration and water infiltration and all that stuff. You can raise soil pH. Now you're putting out a lot of salt to do to do a lot of damage, but you build up over time.
Ken Johnson:You're taking all your salt from a parking lot and putting it in one spot. You could start having some issues there. And again, the sodium and chloride when they get into soil, it can cause issues with nutrient uptake. If there's too much of it, they can compete with other nutrients for uptake with plants. So that can lead to nutrient deficiencies in plants as well.
Ken Johnson:The chloride ions, you know, those can build up in the in the growing tips and you get some tip burn and things like that that as well. So not only is it the desiccation, but you can you can do some damage to your soil. There's the reason. I don't know if Romans actually salted the earth, in Carthage and stuff, but there's there's a reason they talk about that because it will mess up your soil if you get enough, salt and stuff in there.
Chris Enroth:And I it is off if the history books are accurate, it is used it was used as a kind of a temporary weapon of war to salt the fields maybe around where maybe an enemy was farming, and that would then reduce the amount of crops that they could grow, desiccates the crops, but it's very temporary. As Ken had had had mentioned there, salt or sodium is can dissolve pretty easily into a solution. And so we can remedy the issue. So too much salt does not mean lead to, like, a permanent effect on your soil right there. But the death of the cell of the whatever plant that it lands on, that is permanent.
Chris Enroth:So we still have to often go in and do some repair work when it comes to, like, turf grass and things like that. The other thing I I noticed, and I use this image quite a bit when I'm teaching, like, woody plants class, is the salt spray that occurs from, like, plows pushing snow, and that creates this arc, the spray of salt laden snow onto onto plants. And so I've I've I've seen that happen quite a bit too.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. Or even cars driving by when it's nice and slushy like it is right now. You get that salt in there and spray that on plants, especially, let's say, especially with evergreens. You know, you get that on there. That salt draws out the moisture from the needles or the leaves if it's a broadleaf evergreen.
Ken Johnson:And you get that that desiccation, that drying out, yellowing, and all that stuff. A lot of times, if you've got those near a road, you got that one side of that plant that's all dried out and and dead looking. But the other side, which is a little more protected, is fine.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. And I'd say in that case, don't fight what what is going to be. Sometimes there are spots where plants just shouldn't go, or perhaps it could be turf grass. A lot of places where I pile a lot of my snow is going to be either the lawn or it's going to be just a blank mulched bed. We do I in my old house where we used to live, we had rock mulch around the base of the the foundation of the home and kinda spreading then outward.
Chris Enroth:I would pile a lot of snow onto there. There are no plants in there. People who landscape that before me put plastic underneath all those rocks, like like actual plastic, which we do not recommend. Plastic does not need to go in the landscape. But it it it made it inhospitable to plants already, so piling snow on there was no big deal.
Chris Enroth:So if you have a spot that just routinely gets hit by by salt and the plants keep dying and you have to go back and buy that boxwood again, replant it every single year, maybe a boxwood's not a good choice for that location.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. Or yeah. Look for more salt tolerant Mhmm. Plants, if possible.
Chris Enroth:Yep. If possible. And there is debate on whether those salt tolerant plant list, how much research has gone into them. I think for the most part, though, a lot of those those plant list, they're they're pretty much created based upon where the plant is found naturally. So if the plant is naturally growing in an in an environment with high sodium levels, high salt levels, whether it's by the ocean or or somewhere else with high sodium levels in the soil, that's kind of what I believe has been used to develop those plant lists.
Chris Enroth:Whether or not a lot of research has gone into it to see, like, oh, they are resistant to rock salt. You know? I I don't know about that. But but, yeah, check out some of those lists.
Ken Johnson:And in addition to problems with plants, I mean, rock salt, sodium chloride is pretty corrosive too. So you got eating your car, the metal, and we've seen, like, stairs and stuff where, like, the concrete's breaking down because the the rebar and stuff is expanding because it's all rusting out and you gotta replace stairs and stuff. So there's there's an additional caution for you there. Mhmm. Splurge for that undercarriage wash.
Chris Enroth:Yes. Get that undercarriage wash. Do the the sprint the sparkle wax, all that stuff. So yeah, make your car sparkle. So, Ken, I guess, are there alternatives to utilizing, like, traditional rock salt that that someone maybe could turn to to reduce risk to plant damage, damage to concrete, things like that.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. So there's things like calcium chloride, calcium magnesium acetate. A lot of these, they can take going on to colder temperatures. So with rock salt, it really stops working around 20 degrees. So when you get really cold temperatures, it's not really going to do any good for you.
Ken Johnson:It's still going to ice. Think about the ocean, it still freezes. So if it gets cold enough, it'll still freeze. Some of these others can go down like negative 20. A lot of them are still going to be really corrosive.
Ken Johnson:Most of these are gonna be quite a bit more expensive than rock salt. So that's something to keep in mind. If you're only doing a small area, maybe it's practical. I don't know how many people have listened to this, you know, or taking care of large parking lots, but probably not very practical for large areas like that. But there are alternatives out there.
Ken Johnson:And some of these, I don't know how how easy it is to get, how common it is to find these maybe in larger cities and stuff you can find them. But, you I've looked around Jacksonville. I haven't looked in a while, but it's primarily rock salt is what you're gonna find. Yeah.
Chris Enroth:And I myself have personally never used any DIC agent except for at the office where we have to keep the sidewalk clear so people can walk to our office door without slipping and breaking an arm or something. So and I think we just use traditional rock salt. And our plants that we have growing, we have a it's a whole master gardener bed all along the walkway there. We've never had much of an issue there. So that's that's we also have a lot of sedums growing in that.
Chris Enroth:Like, that's actually our sedum garden is that entry walkway to our our office. So maybe plant some sedums in that area.
Ken Johnson:And we bought a bag of salt, and I think it took us five, six years to use it at home. Basically, we do the stairs to get in and out of house so you don't slip and fall down the stairs. But other than that, yeah, we don't really use it much if we know somebody's coming. It's a little icy out. We'll throw some down.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. Don't use it very often either. Yeah.
Chris Enroth:What and there's also this other really neat chemical you can use, sugar beets. So I guess there's a whole I don't know if it's a byproduct or just part of the whole sugar beet industry itself where you can take the juice from sugar beets. I think some highway departments up farther north will actually mix it into some of their road salt, which makes their road salt more effective at colder temperatures. And so I sugar beet could be an alternative for some folks, but it's probably difficult to get your hands on gallons and gallons of sugar beet juice. I know that's a guess.
Chris Enroth:I've never tried. Maybe you can go on Amazon right now and get a 55 gallon drum of it. So I'm I'm not sure. But I've heard, though, that people that use sugar beet juice to help in deicing, it turns the snow kind of a reddish color, which looks like, you know, an animal's been slaughtered or something. And so and and also, if anyone has ever worked with beets, I have, they stain.
Chris Enroth:Like, they stain your hands. They can stain your clothing. You can track that into the house and stain your carpeting. So, just a forewarning, it's kind of a neat idea, but might not be practical again for the homeowner. The some other alternatives perhaps, though, and things that I have used, I have used kitty litter.
Chris Enroth:I have used sand. And I have found those do work when you don't get that much snow, maybe that much that much ice accumulating. But I I have a household then where we track in sand and kitty litter. And so if you do that, have the broom and vacuum on hand to get that stuff all cleaned up.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. I don't think there's any perfect solution. No. Maybe putting heating coils underneath your driveway.
Chris Enroth:Oh, yeah. There are those those people have those.
Ken Johnson:It's kind of expensive, though.
Chris Enroth:Mhmm. I I guess I'm lucky enough that my driveway faces the South well, more the West, but Southwest ish. So as long as I get a little bit of exposure to that dark pavement, it melts on its own with sunlight. So I just have to get a little bit of snow off there for that to start working.
Ken Johnson:You just beat it down until it's a sheet of ice. Usually there's enough gravel sticking up, can get some traction.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. The kids can go bobsledding on it.
Ken Johnson:Right into the street.
Chris Enroth:Yes. Well, Ken, do we got any more tips on salt? I know salt is a big deal. A lot of people do like to use it. We do get a lot of phone calls about damage.
Chris Enroth:Is there anything else that we can give to folks? Say, like, should we be using salt all winter long? Is there a cutoff point?
Ken Johnson:So I would say in general, use it judiciously. Don't go crazy with it. It's relatively cheap, but, you know, it's it's not one of those things you need to be putting a tremendous amount down. The closer we get to spring, the more likely plants are to get damaged. Know, kind of March 1 is sometimes thrown out there.
Ken Johnson:It is kind of a necessarily a deadline, but we're we're wanna be particularly careful with using it. The closer they get to breaking dormancy, the more susceptible they are to that damage as they start waking up. You can try limiting it to high risk locations, so steps, walkways, things on an incline where if you have ice, it's going be a little more difficult to walk so you're not sliding down those. Clear your snow before you put your salt down. You don't want to have much snow, put salt down and shovel it all away.
Ken Johnson:Kind of defeats the purpose there. Yeah. And and alternatively, put the salt down before it starts snowing. So that way it's melting it and and it's kind of getting rid of it before it starts accumulating or helps kind of reduce some that accumulation. Eventually, they know that if you have enough snow, that salt's not going to melt all of it, but that's another option to doing that.
Ken Johnson:Like you mentioned, using some sort of sand or kitty litter, you can mix that with your salt. You're not using as much salt. That'll help you gain traction and stuff as well as melt some of that ice. Again, as long as it's above 20 degrees if you're using rock salt. Those plants, you know, if you've got evergreen or even deciduous plants can be damaged by salt spray.
Ken Johnson:If you have plants that are that are consistently damaged or you've got stuff that's by the road that will get damaged from time to time, You can try wrapping those in burlap to keep the cement salt spray off. The plants trying to protect them that way as well. You can try hosing off plants if they get a lot of spray. Probably easier said than done when it's really cold out, but Yeah.
Chris Enroth:Hard to do right now. Yeah.
Ken Johnson:Later in the year, hey, you if we get late freezing, you don't want to put salt down or if if you can still get the hose out. And then, you know, we did mention, you know, if you do get salt in the ground, it can cause problems, but it's not a death sentence necessarily. Your soils, you can kind of leach that out, water that well, get that sodium and chloride down to that soil profile out of that root zone and help that that soil recovers. If you do have areas where things aren't growing and you know you've had a lot of salt in that area, try leaching that out as well.
Chris Enroth:Well, Ken, you know, I think we we can acknowledge that that snow winter weather can be dangerous and hazardous, and people do need to be be careful and be prepared for things that might happen. But also winter is good. I like winter. I really like snow. I really do like kind of that that winter weather.
Chris Enroth:And if I didn't, I would go to Arizona and play with the cactus down there or something. So but it snow is good too. I I recall we've had a very dry 2023, and then we did get some rain in December. However, it it and it it I think we got we got a good rain. It was a good rain.
Chris Enroth:However, a lot of that rain, if it came as snow and let's say it melted, that melt happens a little bit more slowly than, say, a rainfall happens. And we're able to get a little bit more infiltration in the soil, get back to those, hopefully, predrought levels that we had before and where we were in 2022. So we really do need the snow. It is really, really important for the meltwater that it does create, replenishes after an especially dry year last year. So what is there any other benefits though to to snow?
Ken Johnson:Yeah. Well, going back to the water, I mean, last winter 2223, we didn't have a whole lot of snow. Oh, yeah. Kinda started off the year off with a deficit right off the back, so we didn't get that that snow and stuff. So, yeah, as much as people complain about it, it's it's good to have so you got the water.
Ken Johnson:It can help insulate plants, insulate the soil. So snow early in the year is going do a little better job. You know, the the more that soil is exposed to cool temperatures, the deeper it's going to freeze, which could be a good or bad thing. You know, the deeper it freezes, the more frost heaving you're going to have, which can, you know, heave up plants and cause some problems. But it also helps break up compaction, kinda turn the soil a little bit, get seeds down in there and stuff.
Ken Johnson:So there's that's a little bit of a double edged sword, that frost heaving. I I think most people would probably think of it as a bad thing, but there is some benefit to that too. But if you get snow on the ground there earlier in the winter, it doesn't freeze as deeply, which can help prevent some of that. If you get deep enough snow, you know, four, five, six inches, I've seen stuff where it can be that that surface level under that snow can be twenty, thirty degrees warmer than it is above the snow. You know, we get a like it's like they're predicting negative temperatures that at the surface there, may be low thirties, upper twenties, where above ground it's negative ten, twenty degrees.
Ken Johnson:So that can help insulate the soil, insulate plants, you know, protect them from that that winter, that cold damage, and stuff like that. And and help prevent them from being heaved out of the ground as that we get those soil temperature fluctuations.
Chris Enroth:Yeah, folks. So I I know I I turn on the news and they're like, oh, man. Winter. I'm like, yes. It is winter.
Chris Enroth:You live in the Midwest. It's gonna happen. So don't complain about it. Be happy. Celebrate it, but be careful.
Chris Enroth:Take precautions. You know, it it's it is the the site of the season. Right before the winter storm, everybody's going to the grocery store to get their milk, their eggs, and their bread. And we did we were there too. I will admit it that we were there at the grocery store the day before it all started snowing here this week.
Chris Enroth:So
Ken Johnson:You got a big old bag of flour so you can make bread if need be.
Chris Enroth:It's oh, yes. I love homemade bread. I'm hungry. Ken, you did it to me again. Well, that was a lot of great information about what to do now that winter weather has finally arrived this winter of January 2024.
Chris Enroth:So, hopefully, these tips will help people stay safe, protect your plants, and enjoy the cold winter weather, the four seasons that we have here in this part of the world that we're so lucky to get. So, well, the Good Growing podcast is a production of University of Illinois Extension edited this week by me, Chris Enroth. A special thank you to Ken Johnson for hanging out with me, chatting about what we're gonna be doing, what the snowmen that we're gonna be building, the forts we got, the igloos we got going. We have got all kinds of plans here. And so thank you, Ken, for hanging out with me today talking about winter.
Ken Johnson:Yes. Thank you. I'm excited for the snow. Remember, lift with your legs, not your back.
Chris Enroth:That's right. Take it in layers too. Don't try to take all the snow at this at one time. Do it in layers.
Ken Johnson:Send the kids out or grandkids. Yes.
Chris Enroth:And try to bribe them with hot chocolate. That seems to work in my house. At least it'll get a quarter of the driveway done. So a little done. A little bit.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. So
Ken Johnson:And let's do this again next week.
Chris Enroth:Oh, we shall do this again next week. We got all kinds of things to chat about. Ken's gonna be coming at you with a garden bite. So look forward to that next week. The listeners, thank you for doing what you do best and that is listening.
Chris Enroth:Or if you're watching this on YouTube watching. And as always, keep on growing.
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