Tips for the Month

     Those clear plastic food containers you get from supermarket delicatessens and bakeries make ideal seedling trays and miniature greenhouses. Just fill the container bottom with potting soil, sow your seeds, moisten the soil and close the lid to retain moisture. Check the moisture level periodically. Once seedlings sprout, open the lid. Transplant the seedlings when their first set of true leaves appear.

     Plant new trees, vines and bushes now.  Never allow roots to dry out before planting, and don’t forget to prune new plants when you set them in the ground.  Take the tiller and power equipment into the shop for a tune-up. Change the sparkplug, oil and air filter.  Sharpen blades and tines. Prune landscape shrubs now.  Wait until after flowering to prune spring bloomers such as azalea, quince and weigela.  Mondo grass and liriope can be neatened for the year by cutting off the old, winter damaged foliage from last year.  Also remove the dead foliage of iris, daylilies, phlox, chrysanthemums and other dormant perennials.

 

          Iris in January
   Crawford Street Church
     Carol Duncan, MG

   The monthly average high temperature (30 year average) for the month of January is 50.9, but this year the average was 62.9.  According to NOAA National Climatic Data Center, Ashville, NC, there were several years that had warmer Januarys and Iris were probably blooming.
Year        Monthly Average High Temperature
1950                                 68.8
1907                                 65.8
1952                                 65.8
1923                                 63.2
1932                                 63.2
1933                                 63.2
1953                                 62.9
2006                                 62.8

 "Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden."
                                                                         ~Robert Brault

 

Children’s Gardening

            If you have children or grandchildren, you might want to include them in your gardening hobby. Regale your child with your own gardening memories. It is easy to help them start a few seeds indoors when the weather is inclement.

            Give them a small area to plant their own plants. Encourage them to work the soil with organic matter in the spring and then plant the young seedlings, seeds of easy-growing vegetables and flowering annuals. Supply them with their own watering can and encourage them to water and weed their plants.  Do not be concerned about the tidiness of the children‘s garden. Just delight in them as they watch things grow.


                                    Oyster Mushrooms
                         Gale Waites, MG