Houseplant Care

Use this time to give your indoor houseplants a good cleaning. Dust settles on leaves and clogs "pores", hindering light penetration as well as gas and moisture exchange. Check all house plants closely for insect infestations. Quarantine holiday gift plants until you determine that they are not harboring any pests.

Houseplants will be sensitive to overfeeding at this time of year. Provide lots of sunlight, fresh air, and frequent bathing for plants that seem a little worse for the winter. A good flush of water to wash out all the salts and minerals that accumilate, will do houseplants a world of good!

Spider mites are apt to thrive in warm, dry houses. Frequent misting under the leaves of houseplants will discourage them. A solution of 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup buttermilk, and a gallon of cool water, applied in a mist, is a good organic deterrent.

Re-invigorate your houseplants by removing the top 1/4 inch of soil and top-dressing with fresh potting soil.

Recycle the Christmas tree!
Enjoy the tree post Christmas season, use it as a shelter/feeder for birds and other wildlife. Tie the tree to a deck or a living tree near a window so you can watch all the action. The branches will provide shelter from cold and strong winds. Enjoy a second round of Christmas tree decorating by "decorating" the branches with slices of fruit, suet, strings of cranberries and seed cakes. Dangle peanut butter smeared pinecones along the tree’s limbs. With such a smorgasbord of delicacies, you will have hours of fun watching birds and small mammals dart in and out of the tree for a snack.

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Other uses for a Christmas tree: You can use the branches to cover weather sensitive plants in the yard. The pine needles can be stripped from the tree and used to cover muddy paths. You can chip the trunk as well to use a raw mulch to cover paths and beds.

If you have a compost pile, you can certainly compost your own tree. Be aware that when composting Christmas trees, if you leave them in large pieces, the tree will take ages to break down. It is better to cut up the tree into small lengths or, if possible, shred the tree and then toss it in the pile. Also, when composting Christmas trees, it would be beneficial to strip the tree of its needles, as they are tough and, thus, resistant to composting bacteria, slowing the entire process.

Take a well deserved rest! The holidays are over & the garden is sleeping. Time to sit back and rest for a bit. Maybe try a fun indoor project like pressing flowers. 

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Your rest won't last long however - It's Seed Catalog Time! Time to take stock of the seeds you have and dream of the possibilities for the next growing season!

Collect all of your seed starting equipment together so you’ll be ready to go. You will need lights, heat mats, sterile medium, and your preferred pot type.​ Wash and sterilize seed-starting containers. Start stratifying perennial seeds that need this treatment. Many perennial flowers should be started inside by the end of the month as well. Or you can try Winter Sowing methods see article below. You can also start inside flowers and herbs that have a long germination period, like rosemary, begonias, Angel Trumpets and super tiny seed that take a long time to get big like Coleus, snapdragons, mimulus, heliotrope.

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Check out this great article about Winter Sowing by Toni Cabat

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