An Easy & Affordable Way To Protect Young Trees From Frost Damage & Nibbling Deer

At the beginning of autumn each year, many gardeners start thinking about how they're going to keep their plants safe during the colder months. There's plenty to do to prep your home for cold weather, especially when it comes to protecting your young trees. Young trees are particularly vulnerable to cold temperatures because they don't have sufficiently thick bark, which serves as insulation. They can also be damaged by heavy snow, ice, and wind. On top of all that, deer and other animals seek to snack on them. They're more likely to take a bite out of your trees when food is scarce in cold weather, so it's crucial to keep your trees safe from animal damage in the winter. However, these risks can all be mitigated by simply wrapping your young trees in a specific protective material: burlap.

Besides protecting your young trees from frost and deer, covering them with burlap bags or a wrap can also prevent the plants from being sunscalded, which occurs when intense winter sunlight warms their bark during the day. This tells the tree to move out of its dormancy period, which causes cellular activity. Then, in the evening when the sun goes down and it begins to get colder again, these active cells die, leading to discolored bark. Trees located on the south side of buildings are particularly vulnerable to this. To protect your trees in the winter from frost, deer, and sunscald, find out how to place burlap around them.

The best material to protect young trees in the winter is burlap, as it's porous and therefore allows sun and moisture to get in. Burlap is also a more eco-friendly option than plastic tarps or other materials because it's made of natural fibers. To get your hands on this material, check with your local coffee roaster to see if they have any extra burlap sacks. You can also order rolls of burlap off of websites like Amazon. For instance, you could purchase the Burloptuous 40-inch by 15-feet Gardening Burlap Roll for around $18.

There are two methods for wrapping your trees with burlap. The first method involves loosely wrapping the burlap around the entire tree and using twine to tie the bottom, middle, and top. Alternatively, you can drive four tall wooden stakes into the ground around the tree and attach the burlap around the outside of the stakes with a staple gun. For an alternative, you could wrap chicken wire around the tree and then fill it with straw to add insulation. Whichever method you choose, be sure to remove it after the last frost in the spring to keep pests from causing damage to your trees. You may also want to check out an easy way to protect young tree roots in the winter as well.