Get a jump on garden chores now

One of the advantages of the unseasonably warm, snow-free winter in the Northeast this year is that the millions of us in the upper right quadrant of the country can tend to our "outdoor housekeeping" long before spring arrives.  It's rare to have unfrozen ground in these parts come January, but no matter how often a person rakes in the fall, there's always a hefty helping of leaves hanging around the yard when the temperature dips.  Once those leaves freeze to the ground, there's no removing them until everything thaws out.  This year, I've been able to scoop them up, for the most part, and get the landscape prepped for a spectacular spring season, just two months away.

As I've mentioned many times before (in mantra-like fashion), oak leaves are like gold for flower beds, so keep tender perennials covered in a layer of the tannin-rich gems, which protect them from predation, act as natural pesticides and regulate plant growth in the off season.  Grassy surfaces and hardscaped places do better when the leaves are removed, so grab a rake before the mercury drops!

Gotta admit, you won't be popular with you town's highway department.  The crews are gearing up for salting and plowing, not leaf-bag pickup.  Driving the highways and byways of your town, they'll grimace when they see those telltale bags out by your curb, but let's face it, they've got plenty of time to gather and tote your leaf bags, with nary a snowflake in sight!

Classic Garden Chic

Some garden elements never go out of style.  My favorite all-purpose, timeless plant is--hands down--the humble boxwood (pictured, upper right).  I've always thought that this versatile shrub is poorly named.  Sure, it's traditionally clipped to a box-shaped hedge, but boxwood can be trimmed into shapes as limitless as the imagination.  And yes, one of the earliest uses of this obedient plant was to utilize its conformity to create the vast "garden rooms" of the opulent French courts.  But boxwood has come a long way, baby.

Let's avoid the misnomer altogether and call it by the Latin term: Buxus.  I prefer that word because it reminds me of Buxom, which means full, or plump; busty.  Properly cared-for Buxus (which, by the way, is ridiculously easy to accomplish) can literally "bust out" a move or two in your outdoor spaces.  Some of the most popular forms of this plant are as follows:

Buxus sempervirens: the grand dame of the horticultural world, this garden staple is exactly as advertised: evergreen (semper=always, and virens=green).  What's most notable in this tried-and-true shrub is its rounded shape, which needs minimal pruning.  Native primarily to southern Europe, northern Africa and western Asia, it generally matures in a shrubby form to 5-15' tall, but may grow as a tree to as much as 20-30' tall. Small, elliptic to oval to oblong leaves (1/2" to 1 1/2" long) are simple, opposite, smooth-margined and evergreen. Leaves are dark glossy green above and yellowish-green below. Inconspicuous flowers in axillary clusters are pale green to yellow to creamy white. Flowers appear in April and May, but you've really got to look to see them.

Boxwood can be somewhat temperamental in the Northeast, where its evergreen foliage tends to bronze (turn unattractive brownish-yellow) in harsh winters, particularly if plants are located in open areas exposed to full sun and winter winds. Otherwise, boxwood requires little special care other than annual pruning. No serious insect or disease problems. Some susceptibility to blights and leaf spot. Root rot can also be a problem in poorly-drained soils. The main insect pests of boxwoods are boxwood leaf miner, and boxwood mite.

Buxus microphylla 'Japonica':  Fast-growing, very hardy boxwood, native to the hills of Japan.  Foliage is brighter green, and the growing habit is looser, so more intense pruning is required.

Buxus sempervirens 'Suffruticosa':   This dwarf version, also known as "Dutch Box," is slow-growing, more compact, and lighter in color.  Makes a great potted plant for patios or as edging due to its much smaller size (usually no larger than 2-3 feet tall and wide).

I think the perennial appeal of these glamorous garden gems is their ability to stand alone or gather into gorgeous groupings--creating a sense of style that never goes out of season.

Start planning your garden now

     The best spring gardens are planned months in advance...which means you'd better start thinking about your warm-weather landscape now.  There's plenty you can do this winter to ensure your yard thrives in April.

Get a head start by planting now. Before the snow hits, scatter some seeds in your flower garden beds, and cover them with oak leaves to keep them protected. It's best not to wait until the snow melts, because many seeds need a period of cold before they'll sprout. Some of the best bloomers include poppies, foxglove, larkspur, columbine, hollyhock, and dianthus.

  

Shop for garden ornaments now, during the off-season.  If you wait--even a few weeks--stores and nurseries start setting up for spring, and the excess warm-weather items go back to full price.  The added bonus: that gazing globe, birdbath or frog sculpture you choose will add new dimension to the garden now, perking up the winter landscape. Over the years, the advent of frost-proof concrete and chip-proof glazings, along with a huge selection and variety in form, has made outside art popular all season long.

Send away for gardening catalogues.  Comprehensive catalogs will supply you with high-quality plants for spring and garden reading to get you though the dreary winter days.  And if you're yearning for April so badly that you can almost smell the scent of spring grass, try gardening virtually, via the Internet.  With just a few keystrokes, you can commune with fellow enthusiasts, shop for bulbs from Holland or glimpse faraway gardens.  It's the next best thing to spring, and may inspire new gardening ideas.  I enjoy going on virtual tours of Versailles and the white gardens at Sissinghurst.

While you're in touring mode, why not take a trek around your own yard?  I think the best way to map out what plants you intend to add to your landscape works best when you meander along your own garden paths, and visualize certain plants in certain spots.  Bring a pencil and paper with you to sketch out ideas and make notes when inspiration hits.

Warm weather won't cool the Christmas vibe

The calendar may say it's time to turn our thoughts to Christmas trees and mistletoe, but the weather in the northeast has a totally different agenda this year.  We're on pace for the warmest month of December on record, which will cause those dreaming of a white Christmas to sigh, wistful for subzero temps and frost-laden landscapes. 

The rest of us recall the downside of the cold, ice and snow: aching backs from shoveling, bruised bodies from falling, delayed gatherings due to weather concerns, and soaring heating bills at the time of year we can least afford it.

For the first time in my life I planted something outside in December!  When temperatures hovered in the sixties a few days ago, inspiration hit, and I hurried to the nursery, raced past the cut trees and roped pine garlands, and gathered together an assortment of ornamental cabbage plants in various shades of pink and white (pictured above).  After toting them home, I had to scout around the shed for my planting tools, but soon I was digging into the soil. 

Another upside to the unseasonable weather: my ornamental grasses still look fabulous.  Without heavy snow weighing them down, they stand proud and festive, waving their frothy "flower heads" at passersby.  Pictured below are miscanthus, but panicum virgatum (switchgrass), which has an even more upright growing manner, will look great this time of year.  It will weather the harshest winds, and even stands up to a bit of the white stuff.  Chasmanthium latifolium (northern sea oats) has beautiful pannicles that dance on the breeze, and look lovely with a bit of snow covering--but just a bit.

All in all, my philosophy this season is to embrace nature's surprising gift without regret or worry.  There will be other years when we'll battle snowdrifts and slick roadways to make it to the ones we love for the holidays.  And whether the unusual climate is due to global warming, or perhaps a less sinister El Nino jet stream, we have the added comfort of warm weather to match our warmed hearts.  'Tis the season to rejoice and revel in all the best things in life, no matter what the weather outside our spray-frosted windows.

Wishing everyone the happiest holiday season on record.

Last-minute gifts for nature lovers: native bee houses

Why not stuff a few stockings with native bee houses this holiday season?  It's a great way to send out tokens to nature-loving coworkers, friends and family members, while ensuring that our native bees have safe places to call home.

Anyone who has been following my posts has probably seen the multiple entries I've filed regarding our declining honeybee and native bee populations.  I've kicked off an informal program I call Project Pollinate, which is really just my attempt to spread the word about the plight of nature's premier pollinators, and the importance of keeping them protected.

This Christmas, I racked my brain searching for a gift to please my animal activist/vegan niece, who refuses to put honey in her tea due to the exploitation of the honeybees.  That's when I realized what a helpful, inexpensive gift native bee houses make.  Most of the designs cost less than $50 each (some far less), and make an attractive addition to any property.

One example, the teardrop-shaped mason bee house, pictured above.  It's made from bamboo, which typically weathers the elements for 2-4 years.  It attracts the productive mason bees, which are small, non-stinging beneficial insects.  Slightly smaller than honeybees, mason bees are incredible pollinators. Each one visits as many as 1000 blooms per day — 20 times as many as a honeybee.  Hang a natural bamboo house against a tree or wall where it will get morning sun and attract the bees. Female bees fill the bamboo tubes with their eggs, and nectar and pollen for the young to eat.

I've discovered similar houses on Amazon for $12.00-$25.00.  I ordered one that included express two-day shipping, so I'll have it long before Christmas Day.  Not only does this make a thoughtful, inexpensive gift, but it's space-efficient.  At roughly six inches wide and deep, and 10 inches tall, it will fit nicely into any size outdoor space--perfect even for city dwellers with balconies (even fire escapes!) and rooftop gardens.

For the DIY set, great bee house designs can be fashioned from simple blocks of wood of any shape, with holes drilled uniformly into them.  They attract all kinds of bees and insects, providing them shelter so they can go out into the world, and ensure ours is adequately pollinated.  For more information, log onto prairiemoon.com/NativeBeeHouseInstructions. 

So bee the change you want to see in this world!

A gardener's best Christmas present: more plants!

As the holidays loom, most of us aren't thinking about what our flowerbeds will look like next spring--but we should be.  The planning and prep we do today will ensure that our gardens look magnificent by that first spring day.

I know you're busy.  You've got a hectic work schedule.  And then there's the shopping and cleaning, cooking and baking.  If you're like me, you're buying plane tickets and airing out bedrooms for holiday guests.  Yet if you live in the Northeast, there's one thing you're not doing much of: gardening.  Why not take a few minutes from those bonus free hours to get next year's flowerbeds off to a good start?

Now's the perfect time to clip a few twigs from your beloved boxwoods so you can start that hedge you've been longing for, or propagate a few eryngiums (sea hollies) to place in that hole in the middle of your side border.  According to the eminent horticulturist, the late Christopher Lloyd, propagating root cuttings is not an activity reserved for the professionals; we can all give it a whirl.  And he advised that the dormant season is the "best time to set about it."

What does it require?  Little more than a pair of sharp hand pruners or a knife, a few small plastic pots, a medium to plant in, a bottle of rooting powder, and the desire to begin the gardening process in December.  Here's how:

Wash pots and pruners/knife in soapy water, then rinse the tools in a 10-percent bleach solution. This reduces the spread of plant disease. Poke holes in the bottom of the container with an ice pick if there are no drainage holes.

Mix together equal parts of sand and peat moss to create a soilless mix that drains well. Place the bottom of the plant pot in a container of room-temperature water until the top of the rooting mixture is damp.

Cut a 4- to 6-inch piece of stem from the terminal end of the branch.  This type of cutting is taken from the current year’s growth that is starting to harden.  Remove the leaves from the lower half of the cutting.

 

Dip the bottom 1/2-inch of the cutting into powdered rooting hormone. Do not dip the cutting directly in the hormone container, which can contaminate the entire supply of rooting hormone. Pour a little bit of hormone in a small container and dip the cutting. Discard the used hormone and reseal the larger container. Top off any excess powder from the cutting.

 

Slide the bottom of the cutting 1 inch into the rooting soil. Water the cutting with room temperature water and a spray bottle. Push three or four bamboo skewers into the edge of the plant pot. Drape a piece of clear plastic over the skewers and plant pot to form a mini-greenhouse. Secure the plastic with a rubber band around the container and plastic.

 

Place the cutting in an area in bright, indirect sunlight in a room with temperatures around 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Check for roots in eight to 10 weeks by gently tugging the cutting upwards. If the cutting does not slide out of the plant pot, then roots are starting to grow. Leave in the rooting container for two to three more weeks before transplanting into a larger container.
 

Choosing and using wreathes and garlands

As the Christmas season approaches, thoughts turn to holiday home décor. Topping the list of must-haves each year are wreathes and garlands, usually fashioned from pine. These perennial favorites grace railings, porch posts, and mantles, and are often accompanied by sparkling lights. Seems we can't resist the urge to Deck the halls, and, come December, our desire reaches compulsive levels.

The idea of welcoming the outdoors into our homes is not a new one. We do it every time we buy a bouquet of flowers and place it on a tabletop, and the holiday season is equally steeped in au natural traditions. Our long-established ritual of stringing up nature's gems, be it pinecones, bittersweet vines, cedar, pine and spruce branches--even boughs of holly-- began with the early settlers of this country. Used to adorn Christmas trees, individual rooms or entire houses during the Christmas season, wreathes and garlands added to the family income after the harvesting season was over. Selling them fetched a tidy sum, which was spent on clothing and household articles.

Other things used in early garlands included cornhusks, mosses, dried fruits, and those famous holly leaves. Basically, people used whatever was still green (or they could dry) during the winter season, which is why conifers were--and are--so popular.

As the industrial age geared up at the dawn of the last century, people increasingly turned to artificial items to fashion wreathes and garlands from. Purists will disparage such innovation, but it makes for an ever-widening variety of materials to draw from when creating artful arrangements. I'm always on the lookout for interesting combinations of nature-made or human-crafted items.

In fact, I'm such a fan of garlands that I use them (natural or artificial) around my house all year long.  Nowadays there is such a vast array of materials to choose from, that my home can boast holiday-type spirit through every season. Among my favorite wreath and garland combinations: olive branch and bay or magnolia leaves; grape vine or twigs with berries or chili peppers; boxwood; any type of pine or spruce mixed with pinecones and walnuts spray-painted silver and gold. The combinations are as limitless as the imagination!

If you're pressed for time, many retailers offer wreathes and garlands in all shapes, lengths, textures, colors and price points. Some of my favorite places: Pier 1, One Kings Lane, Michael's, West Elm and Wayfair.

Whether choosing pre-made items or creating your own garlands and wreathes, remember, there is no "right" or "wrong."  Go with what makes you feel great whenever you gaze at it, inhale the scent of or touch it. Go basic, get wild, or choose something in-between.  Take some time during this hectic holiday season to treat yourself to the stylish touches that turn your house into your favorite place on earth.