Archive for the ‘Weekly Tips’ Category

Many people use salt to melt the ice on their walks and driveways. This can do considerable damage to nearby shrubs. It would be better to use sawdust or sand on your walks and driveways to ensure safe footing.

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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Phil The Gardener dot com is going to be taking on a new look and feel in the next few weeks.

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Thanks to all my faithful readers, and newcomers for visiting my site. As I continue to improve your visiting experience I want to give you material that you want.

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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.

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What do you do with your used Christmas tree? Christmas is past and you need to take down all your decorations? You could give it to an elephant. That’s what they do at the Rostock Zoo in Germany.

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