You aren’t always blessed with a lot of notice to be able to prepare a garden for severe weather. Thankfully, many important tasks can be done quickly to secure a garden before a storm.

The best way to prepare your yard for a storm is securing anything loose that can blow around, keeping buildings safe, and protecting any vulnerable plants. Taking a few simple steps can ensure a garden remains safe when strong winds and heavy rain are due.

Here are some quick, simple ways to secure a garden before a storm. A few precautions before extreme weather can reduce the risk of damage, and it starts with looking around the garden and assessing where the potential dangers lie. A large outdoor storage box like one on Amazon can secure small, loose items from around the garden and keep them from being blown around.

1. Move Pots

Containers can easily be knocked over and damaged when a storm hits. This is especially the case for lightweight plastic containers, which get blown around, and taller planters that are at high risk of toppling in strong winds.

Smaller pots should be moved indoors, into a greenhouse, garage, shed, or porch, for protection. Larger pots can be grouped together against a wall to shelter them from strong winds and reduce the risk of them tipping. Hanging baskets should be taken down and put on the ground to prevent them becoming a flying hazard.

A plant caddy with wheels, like this one on Amazon, can be a sound investment to help you move larger pots around the garden.

2. Secure Loose Items

A key part of securing a garden before a storm is putting away any loose items that cannot be fixed down and risk flying around the yard. Scour the garden to spot anything that could become a hazard during a storm and store it away somewhere safe.

This includes ornaments, garden rugs, cushions, garden tools, parasols, children’s toys, and lightweight garden furniture. Storing these away stops them from being blown around during a storm and posing a danger to people or buildings.

These items can be stored in a shed, garage, inside the home, or in a garden storage box (like this deck box on Wayfair).

Where possible, also put heavier garden furniture away or firmly attach it to a secure point with strong ropes. Outdoor lighting should also be taken down to prevent it from becoming airborne in strong winds and potentially shattering against walls, fences, or the ground.

3. Shut Greenhouses and Sheds

Ahead of an incoming storm, check your greenhouse to make sure that all doors and windows are secured ahead of high winds. Any open doors or latches allow the gales into the greenhouse and put extra pressure on the structural frame.

It is also worth checking if any panes are loose and securing them with replacement clips or heavy-duty tape to stop them lifting during the storm. Any loose panes could be lifted by the winds and become a major hazard.

Also, lock any garden shed doors to stop them swinging open during storms. If your shed door doesn’t have a lock, instead prop it shut with bricks or timber. Any windows also need to be shut and any loose roofing felt secured back down to prevent it from being ripped off by winds.

4. Stake Tall Plants

There are different ways to protect plants from a storm, depending on where they are growing.

While you can easily move container plants, there are going to be taller plants around the garden that you cannot quickly shift to a new home before a storm hits. When it comes to tall plants in flower beds, focus on staking them to prevent them from snapping in strong winds.

Plants that need staking can be supported with basic bamboo canes (you can get a pack of five-foot bamboo stakes at The Home Depot), wooden stakes, or metal poles. Either individual stems can be attached, or you can wrap multiple stems with string or hessian for multi-stemmed perennials.

Use soft, flexible plant ties so they allow some movement and place ties every 8-12 inches up the stem for total support. Such as these VELCRO plant ties at Walmart.

It always pays to be proactive when protecting your property. This includes inspecting trees before winter to identify any broken branches or other issues that could cause limbs to drop during storms. Identifying and dealing with any potential hazards is vital for trees hanging over homes, gardens, driveways, and pedestrian walkways.

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