The Mountain Gardener: Simple steps can protect from cold snaps

Frozen flakes of rich, yellow ginkgo leaves at the base of my trees wasn’t what I had in mind when I wrote last week’s column. I watched them land with a soft thud on the frosty ground this morning.
When we get a really hard frost, some plants do get nipped that normally would be fine in a light frost.
Here’s how to deal with frost damage:
Don’t be tempted to rush out and prune away the damaged parts of the plant. This winter will bring more cold weather, and the upper part of your plant, even if damaged, can protect the crown from further freezing. This applies to citrus trees, too.
If a perennial — like Mexican sage, for example — froze and is now gooey and black, cut the plant down to the ground. It will re-grow come spring from the root system.
If you didn’t get a cover crop planted in your vegetable garden, be sure to cover the soil with a layer of compost as soon as possible. If the bare earth is left exposed to the elements, the constant beating of the rain will compact the surface and leach nutrients out of the soil. A 3-inch-thick layer of compost over the soil will act as a blanket to protect the soil from compaction and slow the rate at which moisture penetrates the soil.
At the same time, adding a layer of compost will help improve soil quality. In spring, you can leave the compost as a mulch to help prevent weeds, or you can work it into the soil as an amendment.
Tasty holiday trimmings
I love the holiday season. Every year, I decorate a plant or tree outside my window where I can see it from inside the house. I use edible ornaments that attract small songbirds. Both fruit-eating and seed-eating birds will appreciate the dietary boost during the lean winter months.
For the fruit-eaters, string garlands of dried apples and bananas, hawthorn berries, cranberries and grapes onto sewing thread. You can also thread them onto wire loops with raw whole peanuts in the shell. For another ornament, you can wire orange slices to the branches.
Seed-eaters relish stalks of ornamental wheat tied to the branches, along with ears of ornamental corn. The favorite of all the “ornaments” is peanut butter-coated pinecones encrusted with wild birdseed mix and hung with florist wire. Millet sprays tied to the branches are a hit, too.
Look around your garden for berries and seeds you can use to decorate your tree as a present for the birds.
While you’re in the decorating mood, take advantage of this opportunity to prune your evergreens to use in wreaths and swags. Cuttings from firs, redwoods, pines, hollies, mahonias, strawberry trees, toyons and cotoneaster parneyis make fine additions to wreaths and swags.
But don’t whack off snippets indiscriminately. To reveal the plant’s naturally handsome form, prune from the bottom up and from the inside out. Avoid ugly stubs by cutting back to the next largest branch or to the trunk. If the plant has grown too dense, selectively remove whole branches to allow more air and sunlight to reach into the plant.
Be sure to strip the foliage from the portions of the stems that will be under water if you use the cuttings in a bouquet.
• Jan Nelson, a California certified nursery professional at Plant Works in Ben Lomond, will answer questions about gardening in the Santa Cruz Mountains. E-mail her at ja******@ao*.com.