It's December, it's the off season. A lot of gardeners are inside planning for their 2026 garden—its a very exciting time. One of the things I wanted to have you keep in mind is: if you have evergreens, keep an eye on the weather.
Utah has very finicky weather, that's something that we all know. Moisture levels are all over the place. Last year, we didn't get very much moisture during the wintertime. We saw a lot of damage, especially in our evergreens in the spring.
Evergreens are still using moisture during the wintertime. Our deciduous shrubs and trees also use moisture, but not nearly as much as our evergreens. Evergreens still have needles, they're still transpiring, and they lose moisture.
On warm, windy days, moisture is pulled out of those trees, and they're replenished from the roots. If it's extremely dry, those trees may run out of water. Often, this happens after a month without a snow or rain event of consequence.
The trees have a hard time replenishing water in their needles. In the spring, winter water loss results in thin canopies, brown needles, and branch die-back. That's something we saw a lot this last year.
The fix is pretty simple, though. You just keep an eye on the weather — if you know that you haven't had moisture for about a month, then those trees need water. Evergreens only require water about once every four weeks.
It's not a whole lot of water during the winter time, but if they're not getting any at all for months, it does create a lot of problems. So, if it's dry for a month and your ground isn't frozen or covered in snow, go ahead and give those trees just one irrigation once every four weeks.