Let’s look ahead to gardening in the new year, even though winter may have only officially started last week. The El Nino weather pattern has given us lots of warm weather in the northern half of the U.S. and lots of rain in the southern and eastern parts, so it hasn’t felt much like winter yet.
For Northerners, winter is a good time to plan your vegetable garden and your landscape. A good way to do that is to look at seed and plant catalogs. Many Southerners have their vegetable gardens growing right now.
If you need more help in planning your landscape, winter is a good time to enlist the help of a landscape architect or landscape contractor. Both are often less busy in the winter and might offer discounts to do the design now and installation in the spring.
To break out of cabin fever, go outside and inspect your landscape. Check for signs of deer, rabbit and rodent damage to landscape plants. They especially like chewing on the trunks and stems of berry- and fruit-producing trees and shrubs.
If you live in an area that has not had much snow or rain this winter, check your landscape for dry soil and plants that need to be watered. This is especially important for new landscapes and evergreens. Give them water on the soonest day that is above freezing and hopefully, they will take in enough water to survive.
If you are one of the millions of people who started growing houseplants in the past couple of years, congratulations; it is a fun and healthy thing to do. You may not realize that houseplants can develop insect and mite problems in the winter. In fact, these problems can be worse indoors than out, since there is no rain to wash the tiny pests off the plant. So, turn off your phone for a while and check your plants for insects and mites. Most can be washed off in the shower or sink. There are insecticides on sticks or in solutions that the plants soak up to kill the pests without spraying in the house.
Many houseplants need a winter grooming, so clean up the dead leaves and rotate them so more leaves will face the window and get some sun.
Don’t store extra firewood indoors. Many insects hide in the bark and as they warm up, they may move into your plants.
During the growing season, birds eat many insect pests on your plants. Do them a favor over the winter and put out a bird feeder and a birdbath heater. Suet and black oil sunflower seeds give the most calories so the birds have enough energy to stay warm. Water and shelter are also necessary, so don’t forget them when you design your landscape. A birdbath heater is designed just to keep the water liquid and available for drinking during cold weather; it won’t turn the birdbath into a spa.
