Happy Garden - November 13, 2008

This week we have an article about Winter Protection for Outdoor Potted Plants.

Thanks for sending in gardening photos. Keep them coming! If you have any fall gardening pictures to share, feel free to post them here:

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Or if you have any Thanksgiving centerpiece ideas those would be good too with live plants or flowers.

Thanks for reading,

Susan

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Photos:

• Craft: Scarecrow Lady
• Garden: Surprise Results
• Garden: Beautiful Flower
• Garden: Yucca

Tips and Articles:

• Store Produce In The Garage
• Winter Protection for Outdoor Potted Plants
• Get Rid of Mice with Exlax
• Temporary Fix for a Hose Leak
• Paperwhite Narcissus Bulbs Gift Idea (Under $10)

New Requests:

• How Do You Get Free Seed Samples?
• Hibiscus Losing Leaves
• Aqua Globes Alternative
• Weeping Cherry Tree Sprouts
• Planting Holly Hock Seeds
• Keeping Dogs from Digging
• Hydrangea Flowers Have No Color

Crafting for Fun and Money!

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Craft: Scarecrow Lady

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Garden: Surprise Results

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Garden: Beautiful Flower

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Garden: Yucca

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Store Produce In The Garage

If you have several heads of cabbage you can put them in a cooler. It is insulated and mice can't get in. The cabbages will keep in a cooler in a garage for several months.

Also if it hasn't frosted yet and you still have tomatoes, you can put them in boxes layering between rows with several layers of newspaper. They will ripen slowly and you can have fresh tomatoes. The box needs to be in a cool place, but not cold, like a basement. You can also use the green tomatoes for fried green tomatoes. I just flour and fry in a skillet with shortening.

On carrots, if you have room in your refrigerator crisper or an extra refrigerator, you can put them in there and they will keep quite a long time. Especially if you use them 2 - 3 times a week. You don't have to spend any time freezing or canning.

Also, apples keep for a long time in the refrigerator or put in a box putting layers of newspapers between rows. Check frequently and discard if there are any bad ones.

Source: Tips passed down from family members.

By Beth from Bloomfield, IN

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Winter Protection for Outdoor Potted Plants
By Ellen Brown

No one enjoys lugging tender potted perennials indoors and out each fall and spring, least of all your back. The good news is, if given the proper protection, many (although not all) potted plants can be left outdoors successfully over the winter. Here are a few different techniques for providing winter protection for your hardy outdoor potted plants.

Healthy Plants Overwinter Better

First things first-healthy plants overwinter better. Make every effort to see that your plants are going into the winter in the healthiest state possible. Continue watering well into the fall. Cease fertilizing after mid-summer so plants have time to gradually shut down in preparation for winter. Once the first hard frost has cost the plant most of its leaves, you can start the process of protecting them for the winter.

Cluster Together and Insulate

Large planters clustered together in a sheltered location (under an eave, or up against a south-facing wall of your house) will benefit from the insulating effects of togetherness. Use old nylon stockings or soft rope to tie back and secure branches. Wrap the pots loosely (from top to bottom) in a cage of chicken wire, making sure the cage is tall enough to adequately cover the entire plant. Fill up the column with a thick layer of leaves or straw, working it carefully around all of the branches. For extra support, secure the cage to the ground with metal stakes. If your plants are in terra cotta or thin plastic pots, you may want to wrap the sides of the pots with several layers of bubble wrap for added insulation.

Build a Coldframe

Coldframes are easy to make and create useful temporary winter shelter for small potted plants. Simply select a sunny spot and arrange several bales of hay or straw to form four walls. Top the walls off with an old window, plexiglass, or heavy duty plastic. Now keep an eye on the weather-especially into late fall and early winter. The air inside a cold frame heats up fast, especially under glass. Be prepared to prop it open even in the winter to give your plants some air.

Construct Screens

In open, windy areas, windbreaks made from burlap, heavy duty tarp or canvass can provide young trees and shrubs valuable protection from sun scald and whipping winter winds. Create a simple screen by stapling burlap to stakes pounded into the ground around the plant's perimeter.

Sinking In

Take advantage of the insulating properties of the soil by sinking plants (pot and all) into the ground for the winter. Vegetable gardens work great for this because the soil is already well worked and friable from the past season. Dig a hole large enough to sink the entire pot into the ground. Then add a heavy layer of straw, shredded bark, or leaves over the top of the plant. The soil will protect the roots, while a heavy layer of mulch protects the top of the plant.

Tipping

This is perhaps the most extreme method, and one that is recommended for half-hardy plants that are being grown outside of their recommended hardiness zones. Similar to sinking in, an empty vegetable garden works well for this method. Dig a 14 to 16 inch-deep trench, large enough so that the plant (pot and all) can be laid on its side (tipped), and lightly re-covered with soil. Gently tieing up the branches of the plant will make for easier tipping. Once in the trench and recovered with a light layer of soil, the plant's branches and stems should be covered with loose mulch and held in place with burlap for the season. In Minnesota, a similar technique (sans the pots) is used to protect roses.

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Get Rid of Mice with Exlax

We owned and operated a seasonal fishing camp/resort out in the bush. Our cabins, lodge and washroom facilities were basic & simple. It was a summer business. In the fall we closed down, and in came the mice, although we lived year round on site with 5 cats! I tried everything to protect the cabins, house, etc. from the MICE! Now you cannot mouse proof over 11 acres of resort out in the bush, can you? Thanks to a old timer bush man we did.

You may laugh out loud at his wisdom on getting rid of mice or other rodents, when you think about how his bush man solution works out in the boonies, with seasonal cabins, a lodge, workshop, garage and our house.

Here it is, and it worked like a charm for us. It is to feed them EXLAX... super strength if you can. Rodents love Exlax! We placed it outside & inside. If we thought a cat or dog could get at it, we covered it so that only a rodent could get in and eat it. Even if a bigger animal did get it, it wasn't deadly.

The old bush man told us. Rodents are smaller, their digestive systems are smaller. A little EXLAX goes a long way! Rodents live in communities or families. If one gets sick in "home space". They learn fast and leave for a safer environment.

A mouse/ any rodent loves the chocolate wax like bar of EXLAX! Add peanut butter to the bars if you like. It is "Dairy Queen Deluxe" for rodents. Once the word is out among fellow rodents about the "after effects" of the food supplied, they leave the area for healthier food, as well as, communicate and smell the
"Gastric Distress and Results" of the afflicted EXLAX filled rodent to the community!

We thought it was crazy until it worked. The mice were gone and we were trouble free for over 5 years! Easy and Inexpensive! Yes, some rodents had diarrhea as they packed up and left, but we never smelled it. Anyway this worked for us up until we sold the resort and moved!

PS - As it looks and tastes like chocolate, DO NOT PUT WHERE KIDS, ADULTS or PETS may eat it! You know what will happen with EXLAX! Good luck and happy rodent free spaces!

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Temporary Fix for a Hose Leak

Create a temporary seal for a water hose or small air hose leak, with the labels from some of the plastic drink bottles. The label will come off, if you crush the bottle into itself. Then slip the label sleeve over the leaking water hose, or air hose and apply heat using a hair dryer. It will shrink to the shape of the hose giving it a TEMPORARY FIX, if you cannot repair it right away.

Source: This came from a Japanese Show called "The Ito Family Dining Table" I have personally tried it, and it has worked. The problem is finding labels that aren't stuck on with super glue.

By Tim from Science Hill, KY

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Paperwhite Narcissus Bulbs Gift Idea (Under $10)

A thrifty hostess gift for the holiday season can be started at Thanksgiving to be ready for the December holidays.

Buy nice clear glass bowls or wide mouth clear glass vases at dollar store or thrift stores. Layer glass pebbles on the bottom. I use a mix of shimmery colored and shimmery clear glass pebbles. If you know the holiday color scheme of your hostess, you can choose colored pebbles to compliment the color scheme.

Place 3 or more (depends on size of bowl or wide mouth vase) Paperwhite Narcissus bulbs on the glass pebbles. Fill with water, just to the bottom of the bulbs. Keep watered and in a sunny place. Bulbs will root in the water and bloom in time for the holidays. Tie a ribbon with a holiday bow on the bowl or vase before gifting.

Remind the hostess that when the fragrant blooms are finished to plant the bulbs in the garden--they will bloom the next year!

By OGeorgie from Yachats, OR

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How Do You Get Free Seed Samples?

Does anyone know where I can get free seed samples? Also, does anyone one know where I can buy heirloom seeds?

Aliesha

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Hibiscus Losing Leaves

I have a Hibiscus that I bring inside for the winter. This is my second year bringing it in. My problem is it starts to lose it's leaves and I don't know how to keep it healthy looking, could you advise? Thanks.

Hardiness Zone: 3b


Mary Kay from Sun Prairie

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Aqua Globes Alternative

I have seen those water globes on TV for watering potted plants. Does anyone know how you could make some out of 8 oz. bottles? I would like to try and make some if anyone as any ideas on how.

Cheryl from Lawson, MO

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Weeping Cherry Tree Sprouts

I'm a 'thrifty' person by habit, scavenging for seeds whenever possible. This gives me a wide variety of flowers, bushes, and trees to enjoy the following spring. However, this year I was trying to get seeds from a weeping cherry tree and couldn't see any seeds beneath the tree. Yet, just along the driveway edge (beneath the overhang of the cherry tree boughs) were a multitude of sprouts with leaves that look a great deal like those of the weeping cherry tree.

Is it possible that these sprouts are indeed the 'offspring' of the mature weeping cherry tree? I have looked on the Internet for some kind of information to help me identify these sprouts. But nothing I've read says that the tree throws it's seed and the sprouts grow beneath it all in one season. Have I happened upon a gold mine of weeping cherry trees, or, will I be the one weeping when these things mature into some huge ordinary tree?

Hardiness Zone: 5a

Verita from Mansfield, OH

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Planting Holly Hock Seeds

I received hollyhock seeds. Should I plant them now or wait till spring?

Hardiness Zone: 7a

Christine from Rock Hill, SC

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Keeping Dogs from Digging

Any suggestions on how to keep my miniature schnauzer from digging in the yard. It looks likes the moon, all craters! Thank you.

Karen from Charleston, SC

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Hydrangea Flowers Have No Color

My hydrangea has no color. The flowers are the same as leaves. Why? I have lovely blue flowers all spring then blah!

Hardiness Zone: 8a


kauphykup

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Crafting for Fun and Money!

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More Information:
Click Here: http://www.thriftyfun.com/post_craft.ldml