What would you like to see  Phil The Gardener show you how to do?

A few video tips that are coming to you are:

How to aerate your lawn.
How to change a sprinkler.
How to choose and install a sprinkler nozzle.
How to edge your lawn with a shovel.
How to prune your rosebush.
How to sharpen a mower blade.
Do you have a particular gardening problem you would like to see Phil The Gardener feature?

Leave your idea or problem in the comment box or on this page.

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The main reasons for pruning is to open up the shrub for good air circulation and sun exposure. This will also improve the shape of the plant. Remove broken, dead, decayed, or diseased branches. This should be the first step in pruning.

As a general rule, shrubs that flower before June 15, should be pruned after flowering. These shrubs bloom on old wood. If you wait too late in the summer, or until early spring you will remove important flowers. This will not be harmful to the shrub or tree.

Prune shrubs immediately after flowering like deutzia, forsythia, lilac, kerria, mockorange, redtwig, St. Johnswort, viburnum, weigela, and yellowtwig dogwood.

Shrubs that bloom on new wood can be pruned in early spring, February or March. They can be pruned with the rejuvenation method or “coppicing”, which is a complete cutting of all stems down four to 6 inch stubs above the ground.

Rejuvenation pruning can be done on many types of shrubs, including Abelia, Butterfly Bush, Honeysuckle, Hydrangea, Privet, Pussy Willow, Pyracantha, Snowberry, Slender Deutzia, and Spirea.

Rejuvenation method stimulates growth in certain varieties of shrubs. You should use the correct tool, either a pair of loppers or a pruning saw, depending on the size of the stem.

The appropriate time to prune your roses is when the forsythia is blooming. Cut the canes back to 1/4″ above an outward pointing bud and at a 45 degree angle. Remove all of the willowy canes smaller than a pencil and broken or dead canes. Dead canes are brown or grey in color and live canes are red or green.

When pruning roses use a pair of bypass loppers for the larger canes and a pair of hand held bypass pruners for smaller canes. Use gloves to keep your hands from getting pricked by thorns.

Prune the canes to 1/3″ to 1/2” of their height and leave 8-10 well spaced canes on most healthy roses. Remove all suckers that are growing below the graft.

Dispose of your rose clippings and do not compost them. Rose debris can harbor pests and diseases.

Next week we will talk about pruning trees.

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I want to feature some of your most pressing garden questions also. Send me an email to Gardening Questions. Send me an email if you would like to send pictures, and video to help demonstrate your question or share some feature in your garden  you are pleased with. I will be interested to see what the top ten garden questions you will ask. Click on Gardening Questions.

I have been co-building a community site where gardeners can come to share their stories. Gardeners World Online is going to be the gardening community.

Avoid walking on dormant lawn, dry and frozen grass can be damaged or killed when the crown is crushed or broken.

Birds and other small animals have a hard time finding food when there is snow on the ground. For a few pennies, you can feed a lot of birds. A bird feeder works great to keep the food up off the ground and the birds out of harms way from cats. If you don’t have a feeder lay some cardboard or a piece of plywood on the snow.

Here in Northern California, some of my bulbs think it’s spring already, the Paper Whites have begun blooming.

January is a good month to do your dormant fruit tree spraying. A dormant oil applied now will help to control insect infestations such as scale or aphids. You can spray your peaches to prevent peach leaf curl. Timing is everything, a fungicide needs three applications three weeks apart before the peach buds open.

Now is a good time to get started on pruning your deciduous shrubs and fruit trees. Prune above the collar at the base of the branch. The enlarged base helps to heal the wounds by producing a healing hormone. When you are pruning large limbs, start with the undercut and finish by cutting the top of the limb. This will keep the limb from splitting and doing damage to the main branch. You should wait until after the bloom to prune spring blooming shrubs.

Springtime will be here soon, if you haven’t been working repairing or replacing your tools, this is a reminder, spring will be here before you know it. I am looking at the Mantis tiller for my garden. I think it will help to break up my clay soil and grind my weeds into the soil before they go to seed.

Your houseplants have been sitting for several months collecting dust. This dust will clog pores in the leaves. Take a damp rag and wipe off large leaves. Spray the leaves of your plants with a small hands sprayer filled with water. Take the plant and put it in the shower and spray with low pressure. This is another method to wash dirt off the leaves.

As you read through your garden catalogs looking for vegetables that you had success with and would like to grow this year, consider ordering a few new varieties. Order your seeds now while the seed companies have plenty of stock.

By adding new varieties of vegetables to your garden list that are more disease or insect resistant, you can help to prevent strains of super bugs. Super bugs is a term for insects and diseases that mutate and grow resistant to normal chemical control.

Winter is a great time to plant in moderate zones. Just make sure your garden is not sopping wet or saturated. If you can work the ground use this time to plant or transplant deciduous trees and shrubs.

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It is wintertime and now is the time to read through your garden catalogs and see what flowers and vegetables you’re interested in planting in the spring. You may like to have some more information on what to do before you even get started planting. A friend of mine, Bryan Jakes is coming out with a new e-book on planning your garden. This book will have a lots of helpful information for planning for spring planting. I’ll be bringing you more information on how to get this book real soon.

http://www.philthegardener.com

The local Christmas tree sellers have been giving the elephants in the zoo unsold trees for the last 20 years. Zoo officials say a fir tree will aid an elephant’s digestion.

You can stand your used Christmas tree in your garden. Next summer, it will be all ready to support your climbing plants like cucumber, morning glory, pole beans, and squash.

If it snows where you live you could get your neighbors to donate their used Christmas trees and you can stand them in between the other shrubs and trees for a windbreak. The snow will build up against them to provide an insulating blanket of protection.

You can put your old tree in the back yard in view of your window and tie on different types of bird feed. The birds can enjoy a grand meal and you can enjoy the birds feasting in your used Christmas tree.

You can put your tree by the curb in most large cities and they will pick them up with their green waste. Your tree will be shredded and composted along with the garden waste and cardboard and used in producing a compost material that you can purchase back for your gardens or landscaping.

If you do put your tree out for recycle make sure you have removed all of the ornaments, light strings, and metallic items. If your tree is over 4 feet tall cut it into smaller pieces. If you have an artificial tree it can not be composted.

Your used Christmas tree can be ground up in a chipper and used for mulch around your plants to protect your plants. If you have a garden shredder – chipper you can add your tree to your own compost pile.

To check out this chipper “Click Here”

There are other materials that can be recycled to keep them out of the landfills.

Christmas cards can be put out for collection with the cardboard or shredded for your compost pile.

Wrapping paper can be shredded or put out at the curb for collection as long as it is not metallic or plastic-coated.

Cardboard packaging from presents should be unfolded and flattened and put out for collection at the curbside, or taken to a recycling center.

Glass jars, bottles, and cans used during the Christmas period can be put out for collection at the curb, or taken to a recycling center.

Vegetable peelings and other food waste from Christmas dinner can be used to start your own compost heap.

You can check out a Compost Tumbler at http://www.philthegardener.com/uct9/.
Meat and cooked food should not be composted at home.

An Elephant never forgets what he did with his tree and here is what you can do with yours.

• You can use it to support your climbing vines in the garden
• Use it for a windbreak to protect your shrubs and small trees
• Use it for a bird feeder
• Put it out by the curb for city pickup with their green waste
• Chip it up for compost on your garden
• Or feed it to your local elephant

The Birth of Jesus Christ
18This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

20But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

22All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23″The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”

24When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

My gardening friends, I wish each of you a wonderful time spent with your families as we celebrate the birthday of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May God’s blessings shower down upon you as we close out this year and look forward to 2008.

Merry Christmas from our house to yours.
Phil The Gardener

http://www.philthegardener.com

The Felco ergonomic hand pruner sports a strong anvil blade and is an ideal choice for light day-to-day pruning. Users will benefit from the pruner’s lightweight construction and handle design that resists slipping. Easy to use, the pruner tackles tasks such as cutting back an overgrown hydrangea or removing a sickly pansy patch with minimal stress on user hands and wrists. The pruner’s anvil blades are crafted with hardened Swiss carbon steel blades that offer frictionless slicing and resist rust. With a fine blade adjustment and a wire cutting notch, the blades easily cut through branches, stems, and wires up to 1-inch in diameter. The light metal handles are forged for durability and pivot on tough, replaceable pins rather standard rivets. A cushioned stop keeps the blades from opening unexpectedly or overly wide. The pruner measures 8-1/2 inches long and weighs only 8.7-ounces, and comes with a limited lifetime warranty.

A plant’s needs dictates whether it is suitable to be kept indoors. An indoor Bonsai means that it is in a location that is not its normal growing habitat and would not do well outdoors.

Tropical or sub-tropical species would be known as indoor when growing in a temperate climate area. A deciduous tree would be known as “indoor” in a tropical environment. They would each reqiure artificial conditions to maintain good health. Some trees grow better than others in artificial environments but they all have specific needs.

A bonsai plant can make a good Christmas gift in almost any location in the country as long as you take into consideration your specific climate conditions.