Comments on: my january garden chores

By: Margaret

Margaret — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:12:00 +0000

Happy New Year, Fred. I like to buy orchid plants at this time of year, since they are so long-blooming and will get me through till March at least. You are right, it makes all the difference. Nice to “see” you.

By: Fred from Loudonville, NY

Fred from Loudonville, NY — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:09:25 +0000

Now that the Christmas season is over, and the New Year is here, I am AGAIN thinking spring. I am not a house plant person, BUT love signs of spring in my kitchen and bathrooms. To me, when it is cold and dreary outside, there is nothing more visually exciting than a WINTER GARDEN on the kitchen window sill. At this time of year, the super markets now start offering pots of pre-chilled crocus, hyacinth, and tulips bulbs. Every few weeks I add a new pot, as another fades. The garden here, at Whimsey Hill House, has quite a collection of spring flowering bulbs that I FIRST enjoyed on cold winter days. If a person is not into flowering bulbs, bright colored carnations, and other LONG LIVED cut flowers are especially welcome, when there is nothing colorful blooming outside. I have always placed flowers in the kitchen and bathrooms, because those two rooms, really get the most traffic daily. At the middle end of this month, I will start picking forsythia branches, and forcing them, they makes quite a sunny display.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:09:32 +0000

@Sally: I will confess I do not use the Stout method in my ornamental beds (as you say: too messy), but there I use a few inches of a tidier mulch than hay, a composted stable bedding fine-textured wood chip/shaving that has been well-aged after animals used it). In the vegetables, though, the hay (or better yet oat straw, a real favorite of mine is the longtime trusty companion. Hope to see you soon again.