Get outdoor faucets, containers ready for winter

As the nights get colder, it is a good idea to disconnect garden hoses from outdoor spigots to eliminate the risk that trapped water may freeze and damage our faucet and plumbing. Reconnect hoses temporarily to water new plants or plants in containers as needed during warm spells in late autumn and early winter.

Once you have finished watering for the season, disconnect hoses for the last time and open all faucets to drain out any remaining water. Then turn off the water supply inside your house and close the outside faucets tightly. Water left in outdoor faucets during the winter can freeze and expand, causing cracks and breaks and even bursting pipes.

You may have frost-free outdoor faucets. A frost-free faucet looks the same as a regular spigot from outside the house, but has a long pipe on the back end that extends through the side of the house. The valve that controls the water supply is inside where it is protected from freezing.

A properly installed frost-free faucet will have a slight downward pitch toward the outside faucet so water drains away from the connection when the water is turned off, leaving no water to freeze in the pipe. If you are unsure whether your faucets are frost-free or whether they are installed properly, have your plumber inspect them to avoid a broken water line and big mess in the house.

To discourage chipmunks and squirrels from digging up newly planted bulbs, try pinning garden netting over the planting beds. Remove the netting in early winter once the ground has frozen or in early spring. A light layer of mulch over the netting will help hide it.

This technique works well when you plant a group of bulbs in a compact area, but not when you are drifting bulbs into shrub and perennial borders where existing plants would be in the way of the netting.

For small plantings of bulbs, try enclosing them in a packet of chicken wire before placing them in the hole to protect them from being dug up. The bulbs will grow through the chicken wire in spring. This is not feasible for large-scale plantings.

Spreading blood meal over a bulb bed also may help repel the chipmunks and squirrels.

After a frost, remove frozen plants from containers and hanging baskets and replace them with evergreen boughs, branches with colorful berries, or stalks with interesting seed heads from perennials and ornamental grasses. If you do not have materials available in your yard, garden centers will have lots of options.

You can use the growing medium left over from the summer's display to support the branches if you rework the containers before it freezes.

• Tim Johnson is director of horticulture at Chicago Botanic Garden, chicagobotanic.org.