Winter care in Margaret's Irvine garden: Simple rituals for thriving plants
While others assume California gardens sleep through winter, Margaret Chen knows her Irvine backyard needs a different kind of attention during the cooler months. At 54, she’s mastered the art of winter plant care and discovered it’s more about restraint than effort.
“Winter is when my garden whispers instead of shouts,” Margaret says, surveying her thriving landscape on a December morning. “But it still needs me. Just differently.”
Margaret’s biggest winter adjustment? Cutting back on irrigation. Her drip system drops from twice-weekly summer waterings to just once a week, sometimes not at all if winter rains arrive.
“People kill more drought-tolerant plants with winter kindness than summer neglect,” she explains, testing soil moisture with her finger. If it’s damp two inches down, she skips watering entirely. When she does water, it’s always in the morning to prevent fungal issues on cold nights.
Her established California natives rely almost entirely on natural rainfall.
“These plants evolved for wet winters and dry summers,” she notes. “I let nature do the work.”
Winter mornings find Margaret with pruning shears in hand. She shapes her lavender, removing about one-third of last year’s growth to prevent woody, leggy stems. Her rosemary hedge gets light trimming, and her Russian sage gets cut back to 6 inches.
“It looks severe now,” she admits, “but come April, it explodes with new growth and blooms.”
Most of Margaret’s plants get zero fertilizer in winter. Their growth naturally slows, and they don’t need extra nutrients. She makes exceptions only for winter bloomers like her society garlic, giving them light applications of organic, slow-release fertilizer in early November.
“Organic fertilizers are like a good meal,” she explains. “Chemical ones are just a quick jolt.”
Cool, damp conditions invite problems, so Margaret checks regularly. She watches lavender for signs of overwatering, removes powdery mildew from rosemary, and blasts aphids off new growth with the hose.
“Ladybugs usually arrive within a week to finish the job,” she notes, preferring natural solutions over chemicals.
Margaret finds winter care meditative rather than urgent. Her toyon berries glow red against gray skies. Ornamental grasses catch low-angle sunlight. On rare frosty mornings, her entire garden sparkles.
"There’s magic in every season if you know where to look,” she says, settling onto her bench with morning coffee. “Winter taught me that good gardening isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing the right things at the right time.”
As winter sunlight warms her garden, Margaret makes her final check, adjusting mulch here, testing soil moisture there. But mostly, she simply stands among her plants, grateful for the quiet beauty of California’s gentle winter.
Her garden doesn’t sleep. It rests, rebuilds, and prepares for spring’s explosion of growth.
And Margaret? She does the same.
Looking for more winter garden care tips for your Southern California landscape? Visit Yardtopia.com for seasonal guides, plant care resources, and expert advice for water-wise gardening.
