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As we move into fall and winter, it is time to storm proof your garden. Depending on your location, you are vulnerable to hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, or just hard rain and hail. All these natural phenomenon take their toll on your plants. They, however, can weather the storm better if we take some precautions.

Most of these precautions are common sense. However, we may get busy and forget to perform them. So, remember to:

• Bring patio and other outdoor furniture indoors or make sure it is anchored firmly in the ground. Otherwise, it becomes flying debris in a storm.
• Bring plants that cannot handle the winter in your location indoors. Those potted plants that look great all summer will freeze in the cold.
• Secure awnings, shade cloth, and other material that can get torn loose by the wind and thrown around.
• Bring spare pots and small tools inside.
• Trim limbs that may not make it through the storm season. No, it is not the ideal time to do that, but it is better than waking up to a big limb crashing into the house or car.
• Winterize bird baths and other water sources. Take hoses off and put them up, clean the birdbath and refill it, if necessary get a stock tank heater to drop in the birdbath and keep it thawed for the birds. Remember small mammals, too, that still need water in the winter.
• Look around and see what else can become shrapnel or debris in a storm and secure it in some way so that does not happen.

If you take these steps now, the storms may still damage things, but the damage will be much less than it otherwise would. Just as you winterize your car and your house, winterize your garden.

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Source by Stephanie Suesan Smith, Ph.D.