What do you need to do in the garden this month? With all the holiday activities, it leaves little time to do much gardening, but don’t let holiday fun totally divert your attention. You can make your own wreaths from your garden, give unusual gifts and care for those holiday plants.

There are still some things to do to make your gardening easier come spring. Many plants still require some attention, especially if there is an unexpected cold snap; you’ll need to protect your frost-tender plants.

Christmas wreaths: Make your own Christmas wreaths from plants in your garden. Let your imagination run wild. Gather branches from your evergreens, berry plants, vines and ground covers and arrange them to fit the setting in your home. Add pinecones, interesting seedpods, fragrant herbs and spices to the design. You’ll love them because you designed it.

Garden gifts: Learn how to make garden gifts from your garden at 8:30 a.m. today at the Springs Preserve, 333 S. Valley View Blvd. You’ll create and take home fragrant wreaths and swag, too. Call 822-7700 for more information.

Other ideas: Are you stumped for what to give the folks on your gift list? Gardening tools and gloves are hot items and will prevent blisters for a long time.

Does it always have to be a tool? What about a houseplant, tree, shrub or even a packet of zucchini seeds? Maybe your friends like to read. Give them garden books or a subscription to a garden magazine and they will thank you all year long.

Nurseries are loaded with gift ideas: a sturdy trowel, digging fork, spade and maybe a caliche bar. Always welcome: kneepads for the aged, straw hats or other accessories to take the strain out of gardening. Note the many new organic pesticides now on the shelves. Nurseries are not as crowded, so they’ll have more time to assist you.

Light your walkway: Try making your own luminaries to place along your walkway. Put an inch of sand in sandwich bags to stabilize them and to hold your candles upright to distribute along your walkway. The flickering candles add so much to your nighttime landscape.

Poinsettias: To keep poinsettias lasting longer, select those with deep green leaves and the center yellow flowers just opening. Protect them from cold drafts while taking them home. Place them near a sunny window and away from air vents and keep the soil moist.

Dream books: Catalogs have always been a stimulant for avid gardeners. Use them to plan your next garden. Those colorful pictures with those perfect vegetables hanging all over them cause you to forget last year’s difficulties.

Frost potential: If we get an unexpected frost, cover your sensitive plants with cloth, burlap or cardboard boxes in the late afternoon. Leave coverings on until it warms back up the next day. Avoid using plastic tarps; it gets 10 degrees colder under the plastic.

Press flowers: Try pressing flowers. Select those just opening. Place them between pages of your phone book and place a heavy object on the book while drying takes place. The pressed flowers will last for years.

For planting: Bulbs catalogs are now flooding our mailboxes. Consider getting cannas, gladiolus, caladium, iris, oxalis, sweet potato, potatoes and dahlia. They love a rich, highly organic soil and working it now will mellow it for next spring. If nurseries still have spring flowering bulbs, plant them.

Bare-root fruit trees and roses begin arriving at your nursery this month. Plant them immediately.

Citrus: Begin harvesting grapefruit and lemons. If you have citrus, be concerned about those freezing nights. It kills next year’s fruit buds.

Perennials: Plant more perennials for long-lasting color. Consider these for this spring: asparagus fern, dusty Miller, gaillardia, gazania marguerite daisy, Peruvian verbena, santolina and stocks.

Roses: Don’t be afraid to rogue out those you don’t like. Avoid fertilizing them until after you prune in January.

Clean up: Good sanitation is the best way to destroy those hiding insects and their breeding locations. Pull, hoe or spot-treat weeds with a contact herbicide as they appear or you’ll be a sorry weeder for several years.

Birds: Attract our feathered friends to your garden this winter by providing seeds and water for them. There are many unusual birds still hanging around during the winter.

Pruning: Begin pruning deciduous trees as the leaves drop. If you prune too soon, diseases may enter trees.

Linn Mills’ garden column appears on Sundays. You can reached him at liinmillslv@gmail.com or call him at 526-1495.

While the season for giving and shopping and jammed parking lots is here, if you need a break from the hustle and bustle the garden might offer a respite.

Believe it or not, because of our climate, there’s plenty you can do in the yard around your house this time of year.

This is especially true when it comes to planting and transplanting things, but remember the golden rule of gardening: The right plant in the right place. That means you need to think long term like how big the plant will get and how much sun it’s going to need.

“I dress in layers,” horticulturist Ingela Wanerstrand said. She’s putting on one of several pairs of gloves she keeps handy for foggy cold mornings and she’s wearing waterproof rain paints to make sure that when she’s kneeling or digging that she stays dry.

“This is an apple tree,” she says as she hands the large pot to me. Our Northwest weather might be soggy in the winter, but we rarely have freezing temperatures which means it’s perfect for planting and transplanting.

“Then they have the whole winter to grow a root system, so that they’re more able to withstand their first dry season,” Wanerstrand said.

After you’ve selected the spot where you’re planting you’ll want to loosen the soil with a strong garden fork. This will allow you to penetrate the ground and go around large stones, which are easier to remove with a fork than a shovel. Roughly measure the hole you’ve dug and you want to make sure it’s a bit wider than the pot the plant came in. You don’t want the hole to be too deep because with our soils the plant can sink after planted and if it’s too deep the whole area will collect water, causing root rot.

“It’s very important to plant it at the depth at which it was in the pot,” Wanerstrand said.

She also demonstrates making a tiny mound in the middle of the hole that allows the gardener some wiggle room in placing the tree or shrub. Then, gently ease the plant out of the contain and in to the hole.

Next, you’ll want to tease the edges of the root ball if they’re pot bound with a sharp tool that could be anything from a knife to a carpet cutter. This will encourage the edges of the roots to expand into the surrounding soil. You’ll then want to backfill with the same dirt you dug out of the hole, but do not pack the soil down.

A stake is a good idea for our winter winds. A little sway is fine since it encourages the plant to grow stronger roots to prop itself up. Due to the nature of some dwarf root stocks of fruit trees, they’ll have to be staked for as long as they live. Biodegradable twine is optimal for fastening the tree to the stake with a figure 8 twisting pattern, so that the stake and the tree don’t touch each other. Since the twine will degrade over time, you don’t have to worry about it choking the plant like some plastic ties can.

A bit of a moat around the tree will direct water to fill the air pockets left behind from where you did not stamp or press down on the ground. A good soaking is going to give the plant much-needed water, it also will fill those air pockets and help bind the soils in the root ball and the surrounding earth.

“The first dry summer and maybe the second summer, too remember to soak the root ball,” Wanerstrand said.

It’s important to remember you can still put edibles in the ground. Things like kale, that you can get as starts from your local nurseriea, and bulb-like plants like garlic can also go into the ground now. Don’t forget about spring ornamentals like tulips and daffodils — a little work now with these plants will mean a host of flowers in the spring.

Recently, a local news channel that reported a story about garden and weather folklore.

The interesting program got me to thinking about how the “old-timers” used seeds, insects, acorns and certain phases of the moon to predict optimum planting schedules and weather forecasts. Fascinating! Could there really be any merit to their observations and predictions for future occurrences in nature?

I did some of my own research on the subject and found out some wonderful garden and weather folklore.

Gardening folklore does have some scientific roots. The old-time farmers based their experience on seasonal changes that correlate with animal behavior and plant growth. This type of knowledge is based on what is called phenology, the relationship between annual cycles of plants and animals and how they respond to seasonal changes in the environment.

Phenology has been used for ages in gardening and agriculture for planting dates, when insects will become a problem and blooming times of plants. Modern-day plant scientists have found that this formula corresponds to a measurement called growing degree days. They take the average daily temperature in a region by adding or subtracting it to 50 F. This information is used to estimate events such as when pest controls should be used to get maximum benefit results.

The older generations have plenty of gardening advice. We sometimes do things the way our elders did before us: Parent to child, neighbor to neighbor. Some are backed up by actual events and the tips could prove to be helpful. I guess it has to do with the storyteller.

The ever popular Farmer’s Almanac endorses planting by lunar cycles and using astronomy to make their predictions. Even though the almanac does not use weather lore to make long-term forecasts for broad areas, it does take cues from nature and believes there is a strong cause-and-effect relationship between nature and weather.

Predictions by the Farmer’s Almanac have a sound mathematical and astronomical formula that has been proven to be quite accurate. So accurate that the formula is kept locked away somewhere in Maine!

How about planting by lunar cycles? Some say the moon impacts the movement of moisture in soil and plants and helps bulk up root and leaf growth in vegetables. Hmmm. Look at the gravitational pull of the moon in relation to ocean tides. Some would discount the theory, I suppose.

Plant lore can range from “planting vegetables by a waxing moon,” or split open a persimmon seed and the shape of the seeds will tell you what type of winter is expected. A knife shape means a very cold winter, a spoon shape means a lot of snow shoveling and a fork means winter will be easy and mild. In reality, when you split open the seeds they do look like eating utensils.

Other folklore includes:

• Bury nails around the roots of hydrangea to make the blooms blue.
• Anything planted on the first day of spring will live.
• Planting peppers when you are mad makes the peppers hotter.
• Tomatoes should be planted on Memorial Day.
• A ring around the moon at night means a storm is coming.
• Lightning before Christmas means snow is coming.
• My favorite: “Folks up here in the mountains claim that for every foggy morning in August, there will be a snow in the winter.”

Weather and gardening folklore apparently won’t hurt anything. It can be a conversation starter and a fun activity to share with children. I think most sound gardening practices have to do with soil health and temperature, moisture levels and fertilization.

But I can’t help but wonder when I see that caterpillar late in the fall if we are going to get a mild winter, or those fogs that we actually did have here in August mean snowfall for us this year. You decide.

Go out and purchase a recent Farmer’s Almanac. It is fun to read. Also, if you want to have some fun exploring the phenology of our region, go to the website www.attra.org, a USDA-sponsored project.

Also if you need university-researched-based information on all gardening practices, give Extension a call. We provide up-to-date accurate information on all things horticulture.

Wanda Cannon serves as Master Gardener coordinator and horticulture assistant for the Hall County Extension office. Phone: 770-535-8293. Her column appears biweekly and on gainesvilletimes.com/life.

 

Pike Nurseries’ Melodie McDanal visited Good Day Atlanta Friday to talk about December Gardening.

In the Garden
– Decorate for Christmas – Put up fresh, fragrant wreaths and garland, and wrap your house in Christmas lights
– Add Color – There’s still time to add flower color to your garden and containers. Plant pansies, hardy cyclamen, Helleborus Gold Collection and more
– Bulbs – This is your last chance to plant spring blooming bulbs like hyacinths, crocus and tulips. Plant bulbs pointy side up
– Prune for Décor – Prune evergreen plants like holly, magnolia, dogwood and more. Use the cuttings in your table arrangement or mantel décor

In the House
– Christmas Tree – Get your Christmas tree now.
– Poinsettias Christmas Cactus – Decorate with poinsettias and Christmas cactus throughout your home. Avoid putting plants near drafty areas or near a heat source

For the Birds
– Food sources for birds are more limited this time of year
– Place bird feeders throughout your yard
– Bird suet is especially good this time of year since it packs lots of nutrients – it’s like a powerbar for the birds

Click here for more information.

By Carol Stocker
Globe Correspondent

BOYLSTON, Mass. -The Worcester County Horticultural Society, which owns and operates Tower Hill Botanic Garden,
has announced the appointment of Kathy Abbott as Executive Director.

Abbott is a leader in conservation, having
held posts as Interim President and Executive Vice President of The Trustees of
Reservations; Director of the Conservation and Recreation Campaign of The Trust
for Public Land; Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and
Recreation; and President and CEO of the Boston Harbor Island Alliance. “Her conservation experience, management acumen and successful career as a collaborator and fundraiser are a real boon to our organization,” said Chris Reece, President of the Worcester County Horticultural Society.

As Interim President and Executive Vice President of The Trustees of Reservations,
Abbott oversaw more than 25,000 acres of land and led the organization’s drive to
expand its urban conservation work across Massachusetts with Urban Parks Advocates.
Prior to that, as Director of the Conservation and Recreation Campaign of The Trust
for Public Land, Abbott led an advocacy campaign that increased
the budget to manage and maintain Massachusetts’ state and urban parks by 20 percent.

Abbott has developed a national reputation working on creative public private partnerships and fundraising. As the Founding President and CEO of
the Boston Harbor Alliance, Abbott partnered with the National Park Service and other
agencies, corporations and foundations to develop and manage
the Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area, a new model national park.

She is the National Co-Chair of the City Parks Alliance, the only independent, nationwide
membership organization solely dedicated to urban parks.From 2003 to 2005, Abbott served as the first Commissioner of the Massachusetts
Department of Conservation and Recreation, where she oversaw the merger of the Metropolitan
District Commission and the Department of Environmental Management into a single
agency with over 1,100 employees and managed over 450,000 acres of public land
in the Commonwealth for recreation, water supply, forestry and more.

“This position is a wonderful opportunity for me to apply all of my experience to
help grow an incredible organization focused on connecting people to plants and
all the benefits they contribute to communities and the Commonwealth, and to further
the connections from gardening to our changing climate,” Abbott said. “Moreover,
the Worcester County Horticultural Society is a renowned institution going back
nearly 175 years and Tower Hill Botanic Garden is simply a beautiful and amazing
place that touches people and I look forward to spending more time there.”

The hiring of Abbott comes at a time when the Worcester County Horticultural Society
and Tower Hill Botanic Garden are looking to expand the role of Tower Hill Botanic
Garden in Worcester and across the Commonwealth and New England.

“The Trustees envision Tower Hill Botanic Garden as a force of nature in New England,”
Reece said. “Kathy shares that vision and has the skills to build a broad and engaged
community grounded in gardening and horticulture. At Tower Hill we want to provide
a fun and relaxing environment where we can promote the contributions that plants
make to the environment and economy. They are the source of all the air we breathe,
the food we eat and are critical to maintaining the water we drink.”

Abbott holds degrees from
the Stockbridge School of Agriculture, UMass Amherst and Harvard University.

The nation’s third oldest horticultural society, the Worcester County Horticultural
Society was established in 1842; nearly 150 years later, the nonprofit organization
created Tower Hill Botanic Garden, one of New England’s only comprehensive botanic
gardens.

Mike McGrath, wtop.com

It’s almost winter, do you know where your de-icer is?

I know it’s time for me to be writing up last-minute gift tips for gardeners, reminders not to set your tree on fire and warnings not to eat the mistletoe. But we’ve already had some frigid nights, winter officially starts next week and the holidays always do a darn good job of distracting us from important “everyday” stuff.

And so I ask you, my fellow Americans, do you have de-icer at the ready? Waking up to an icy walk is not the time to start thinking about such things. So this weekend, pick up a shaker jug, and not one containing rock salt if you’re going to use it near a lawn or other plants. You want calcium chloride, potassium chloride, magnesium chloride for a plant-safe rock salt alternative.

Confused? It’s easy to be. A lot of the so-called “alternatives” out there are just rock salt wearing a dress and high heels.

Scan the fine print for the list of ingredients, and look for the letters “NaCl” on the label. If they’re not there, you have a true, plant-safe de-icing alternative.

But if NaCl is one of the ingredients, there is rock salt in there.

Best gift for a gardener? Gloves they’ll actually wear

The Christmas Clock is ticking, time for gift ideas for gardeners.

A good pair of gloves is a garden necessity. But most styles are so bulky you can’t feel what you’re doing. That’s why I use baseball batting gloves in the garden.

They offer great hand protection and fit tight enough for you to do even fine work while wearing them. And, you can pick bright team colors like red or blue that are much easier to find than brown when put down.

I try and have four to five pairs handy so I can change them when a pair get muddy or wet. Stores with sporting goods sections can probably be persuaded to dig out their inventory for you.

Or go high-end with a premium brand like Bionic. Known mainly for their golf, tennis and other sporting gloves, Bionic makes a line of excellent, high-quality tight fitting gloves specifically for gardening.

And, Bionic gardening gloves are available at a number of local independent garden centers, so you don’t have to sweat delivery. To find the retailer nearest you, click here, then click the little box that says “Gardening,” and then enter your zip code.

And nobody says ‘poo’ to a good pair of pruners

Need a last minute gift for a gardener? We can always use a new pair of pruners. Hand pruners are the essential small gardening tool. But gardeners often lose track of our favorite pair, leave it out in the rain, or realize their pruners aren’t nearly as sharp as they used to be.

And every year brings huge improvements in ergonomic design, meaning that a new pair of pruners should be much kinder on the old gardening joints. I personally like and use the “Power Gear” line from Fiskars, a company that has made great strides in ergonomic design. Felco pruners are also a great choice.

Can’t decide? Buy several pairs! I typically like to have three or four good hand pruners at the ready.

You never know when some old fool is going to leave one out on the potting bench in the rain overnight.

Last minute gardening gift rundown

• A true, dedicated mulching mower for a lawn owner whose current mower is out of date. These sleek machines turn clippings into a pulverized powder that feeds your lawn as you mow.
• A leaf blower that has a reverse setting and a collection bag, so that you get your leaves off the ground, and get finely shredded leaves for garden mulching — shredded leaves make a great mulch — or for composting.
• A worm bin for someone who wants to turn their kitchen scraps into the only plant food that’s better than compost.
• A composter for turning all those shredded leaves into garden gold.
• A rechargeable weed whacker, because it makes you take a break when the juice runs out.
• Or, a nice organic fertilizer like a liquid fish and seaweed mix or worm castings. Nothing says “Happy Holidays” like a festive bag of worm poop.

Holiday plant care in 53 seconds

• Soak the base of a cut Christmas tree in a big container of fresh water before setting the tree in its stand.
• Don’t let tree stands run out of water, or green and sharp your new carpet will be.
• Give unbloomed amaryllis lots of light and turn the plant every day to keep it straight.
• Keep flowering amaryllis in a cool spot to see the longest show.
• Keep poinsettias warm. Never expose them directly to outdoor cold.
• Repot rosemary Christmas trees into larger containers or they will quickly turn brown.
• Add 10 percent gin or vodka to the water to keep paperwhites nice and compact. Watering with a mixture of 1-part 40 percent (80 proof) alcohol to 9-parts water has been shown to prevent the droopy legginess that often plagues paperwhites.
• Use sharp pruners to harvest evergreen and holly branches for fresh decorations.
• And men, bring some of that holly into the house. When holly enters before ivy, it means the man will be king of the castle in the coming year.

Follow @WTOPLiving on Twitter.

(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)

Stylin’

Take a look back at the styles that turned heads
this year. (Photos)

Running Buddy

A running partner with quite a stride joined a
man in Va.

Torch the Goat

A layer of ice didn’t deter torching of a
Swedish
town’s straw goat.

Spirit Citation

A Kansas man has too much spirit, says his traffic ticket. (Video)

Lots of new poinsettias end up in the hands on non-gardeners this time of year. So many of them bite the dust early because of the abuse they often endure prior to the sale and the root-rotting care they often get once in the living room.

Garden writer George Weigel shows you a few easy tips to keeping your poinsettia looking good even into spring in this week’s video.

For more garden tips, check out the links below.

• Where to get greens for do-it-yourself wreaths
• Planting Christmas roses outside
• Check out more gardening tips and tricks »

Look for George Weigel’s Garden Tip of the Week each Thursday. George Weigel is the garden writer for the Patriot-News and also owner of a garden-consulting business for do-it-yourselfers, garden-tour host, frequent garden speaker, Pennsylvania Certified Horticulturist and certified gardening nut.

Raise plants in pots off the ground to prevent roots from freezing, remove
saucers to ensure plants don’t stand in water, and wrap the whole thing in
bubble wrap or hessian if you want to be doubly sure. But note that in very
exposed areas you may already be too late to save marginally hardy plants.

Don’t walk on the lawn when it is frosty, as it damages the grass.

If you have plants in the garden that already look frosted (ie drooping,
blackened foliage), and are not sure what to do, leave them alone. They will
probably die back but, if perennial, they will reshoot in spring.

If they are frost-tender it’s too late to revive them, so start making plans
on what to plant in the gap next spring.

This is best done indoors, by a roaring log fire, with a selection of 2013
seed catalogues.

Gardening Tip of the Week- 8th December

08/12/2012 , 9:29 AM by Peter Riley

Christmas is just around the corner and John Gabriele has some last minute tips to get your tree in the best shape possible. Take a listen below….

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Gardening Tip of the Week- 8th December

08/12/2012 , 9:29 AM by Peter Riley

Christmas is just around the corner and John Gabriele has some last minute tips to get your tree in the best shape possible. Take a listen below….

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You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

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