Oh No! There’s snow! Plus a lot of ice, wind and freezing weather. The good news for your garden is that we’ll have a lot fewer slugs, bugs and other garden thugs this spring and the winter storm might also freeze a few million weed seeds.
The third week of January is the start of the gardening season – yep, the Tacoma Home and Garden Show runs Jan. 25 through Jan. 29, followed by the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in February and then a bumper crop of garden shows, plant sales and blooming celebrations to welcome the 2012 growing season.
The first week of January means it is time to make some promises to your garden. These resolutions mean less work and more beauty so mark your calendars now so each month you’ll hold yourself accountable:
The first week of January means it is time to make some promises to your garden. These resolutions mean less work and more beauty so mark your calendars now so each month you’ll hold yourself accountable:
After writing this column for more than 25 years, this is still the most requested reprint, so as a gift each year I go with tradition and offer this Christmas column so that it can be used and shared copyright free. You can also download a copy from my website at www.binettigarden.com.
The end of 2011 means it is time to answer the most often-asked questions of the year – those e-mails and letters I get over and over.
The second week of December is when holiday shoppers begin looking around for more creative, meaningful gifts. If you want to give something more thoughtful than a gift card to a loved one and avoid huge parking lots and long lines at a register, then visit a local nursery or garden center for a living plant or garden tool.
The first week of December is the time to start humming a certain carol, make like the Victorians and deck the halls with boughs of holly. But don’t forget about the cedar, fir, nandina and camellia greens.
Gardening doesn’t have to end when the weather turns cold and the days are short. Some of the best houseplants thrive indoors all winter and some don’t even need to grow near a window to coax them into blooming.
During the second week of November there is still time to dig up and divide your overcrowded daylilies, hosta and iris and now is also the time to cut back the yellow foliage of lilies and peonies. In the vegetable garden you can leave carrots, cabbage and brussels sprouts in the ground where the cold weather will add a sweetness to the flavor.
Now is the time to get down and dirty with dirt cheap bulbs. Spring blooming daffodils, tulips, crocus and a bouquet of minor or smaller bulbs are deeply discounted at most nurseries and garden centers right now and November is the perfect time to plant.
This is your chance to celebrate October by planning for spring.
What you do now will pay off all spring and into the summer.
As the weather turns cool it is time to remember that fall is for planting. The cooler days mean plants will spread out underground with a better root system so a perennial, shrub or tree planted into the ground now will have a better start in the spring and more top growth by mid-summer.
