December Reminders

December! As you can imagine most of the chores this month are centered around the holiday and take
place indoors where it’s warm.

• Spice up your holiday with natural decorations from your garden or ours. Make it a point this year to use empty urns or pottery to create outdoor winter arrangements on your porch or entry way.
• If you are “going green” this holiday season and are using a live tree so you can plant it outdoors, do not keep it inside formore than 6 days. It will come out of dormancy and the shock of moving it back outside might prove to be too much for it to survive. 
• Cut back on watering and fertilizing your houseplants. Plants aren’t in an active growth stage during winter and don’t need asmuchmoisture or nutrients. Water when the soil is dry to the touch and hold off on fertilizing the plants until March.
• To keep holiday greenery fresh longer soak the entire limb in water over night. Completely submerge garlands and wreaths in the bathtub for 12 hours. For evergreens like spruce that tend to shed their needles, spray the boughs with “Wilt Proof.” This product holds plant moisture within the evergreen needles or leaves.
• Few indoor plants offer more color and drama than the amaryllis. To prolong the bloom of this magnificent flower try this method. Once the flower bud opens, remove the yellow anthers inside the flower with tweezers before they shed pollen. The flowers will also last longer if the plant is moved to a cooler room at night (55-65 degrees) and out of direct sunlight during the day.
• To prolong the poinsettia color, keep the plants in rooms where the temperature is around 60 degrees at night and 72 degrees during the daytime and out of direct sunlight. The flowers will also last longer if the plants are moved to a cooler room at night.
• You can still plant spring flowering daffodil bulbs as long as the ground is not frozen.
• Late fall and early winter are ideal for soil testing. If the soil is workable you can make any changes now and get a jump start on spring. Call Penn State Co-Op Extension to obtain soil test kits. (412-473-2540)

November Reminders

It's hard to believe that the end of Daylight Savings Time is almost here.  It seems like just yesterday that we were springing forward.  Now it's dark by 7:30 so time is really limited in the garden.  Fortunately there aren't a lot of tasks to do before winter.

• Don't wait until December to protect any evergreens that have been damaged during previous winters. These plants may need to be shielded from more than just wind and snow: Use burlap to cover evergreens located near a road that will get salt sprayed.
• Wait to apply winter mulch until the ground is frozen. Keep the mulch away from tree trunks and plant crowns to prevent rodents from damaging them.
• Fall is a great time to prune evergreen hedges because they are more visible once the rest of the garden goes dormant. Shear them on a slight bevel so that the bottom sticks out a little further than the top.
• Fall is a great time for planting trees, but some varieties prefer a spring planting. It may be best to hold off the planting of Japanese Maples, sweet gums, oaks, crabapples, and birches until next spring.
• Detach watering hoses from outdoor spigots. Drain them, roll them up and store in a dry location. Place an insulating foam cover over the spigot to keep ice from cracking the metal.
• Cover strawberries with a straw mulch. Wait to mulch your beds until after two hard frosts, or when the he soil is frozen to a depth of about ½ inch.
• Store terra cotta and glazed pottery for the winter. Glazed pottery can be left outdoors if the soil is removed and the container is kept dry.
• Cut back on water and stop feeding houseplants. As the days become shorter your plants shift from an active growth cycle so they take up less moisture and don't require additional nutrients.
• As long as the ground is not frozen, you can still plant daffodil and other spring blooming bulbs.
• Are you getting a live Christmas tree this year? Dig the hole now, before the ground freezes. Keep the garden soil you removed from the hole in an area where it won't freeze or wash away.