• Some local nurseries have gone out of business! Grab a hot beverage and head on out to your locally owned nursery to see what is in bloom this time of year. You’ll be surprised!
• You can start pruning your roses this month.
• In order to kill overwintering pests and fungal spores it’s time to dormant oil spray your roses and dormant fruit trees. There are many products from which to choose; I use Neem oil on my roses.
• Continue to use an antitranspirant such as Cloud Cover every 6 weeks or so on your citrus and other shiny leaved plants that are vulnerable to frost damage. Be sure to spray underside of leaves too.
• If you are not using your raised vegetable beds this winter cover the soil with a nice thick layer of compost mulch.
• When planting bare-root plants: soak the roots in a bucket of water for a few hours before planting.
• Keep your pruners holstered around Lilac, Forsythia, Rhododendron, Azalea, and other plants that bloom in early spring. Pruning spring flowering plants now means little or no flowers until spring 2011!
• Continue to protect your little sweet pea plants from pests. You can still plant sweet pea seeds if you missed planting in November.
• Do not cut back damaged plant parts from frost damaged plants. It is best to leave the more frost tender plants such as Lantana, Citrus, and Salvias alone until new growth starts in springtime.
• You can still plant wildflower seeds. Make sure to first clear all weeds from the planting area.
• Now is the time to start pruning your dormant fruit trees such as Apple. Other than to clear out crossing, dead, damaged or diseased areas, Persimmons and Figs generally do not need much pruning.
  

Planting Suggestions for January:

Bare-root deciduous fruit trees, blueberries, cane berries, rhubarb
Daphne
Cyclamen, Pansies, Calendula, Primrose, Sweet Alyssum, Iceland Poppies

As The Gardening Tutor I often hear people say that they feel they have a “black thumb” or that they “kill everything”. I understand and I remember exactly how defeated I felt when everything I planted died.

Before I knew anything about how to establish plants I lived atop a rocky hill in the country. This plot of land had nothing but weeds growing on it and I really wanted to see flowers. So one day, I picked up a few flats of ice plant and taking my life in my hands I climbed onto the steep hillside out in front of the house. Patiently I chiseled little holes in the dry, rocky soil and with great hope I planted the little plugs of ice plant (did I mention this was in the heat of the summer?). This endeavor took the better part of my day. When I was done, the hillside was a polka dot design of little plants that I thought would quickly fill in and be a waterfall of color when they bloomed their hot pink flowers. Within days all the little plants were crispy brown and dead! So sad.

Another time, before I knew about how fertilizers work, I had five beautiful hanging baskets full of fuchsias and other plants. I had heard that plants in containers needed fertilizer so one day I mixed up some liquid fertilizer and poured it in each container. Later when I went outside I noticed the plants looked terrible. What happened? They all died because the soil in the containers was dry when I added the fertilizer.

As you can see we all start at the same place. No one is born knowing how to make plants thrive. Perhaps your “black thumb” is just dormant. Once you learn what to do with and for your plants you too may have a “green thumb”! At the very least you will feel more confident about your gardening endeavors.

When you are ready to try gardening again or for the first time contact The Gardening Tutor for your first appointment.

Things to Do in the Garden:

• Near the end of December bare root season begins. Be on the lookout for bare root fruit trees and roses.
• Protect frost tender plants with frost protection cloth. For some plants, such as Citrus you can use an antitranspirant such as Cloud Cover.
• Prune Wisteria vines. Shorten the laterals to two or three fat buds.
• Remember to check your plants that grow close to your home and outbuildings. If the overhang keeps the rain from reaching these plants you will need to give them some winter irrigation.
• December is the time to start some of your dormant spraying on your deciduous plants, such as some fruit trees and roses. Dormant sprays kill overwintering insect eggs as well as fungal spores. Wait until the plants have lost their leaves. If the plants still have a few leaves on them when you are ready to spray, remove the leaves before spraying. Remember to spray the soil underneath the plant too.
• Leaving old fruit on the soil under your fruit trees encourages insect and disease activity.
• If you have bark under your roses consider replacing the bark with nutritious compost mulch. Slowly decomposing bark or other such mulch is the perfect place for fungal and insect pathogens to live and keep infecting your plants.
• Continue to remove weeds from the garden.
• Do not work soil that is too wet. Wait a few days after a rain to do your weeding, bulb planting, or other tasks that disturb the soil.
• When inside your house look outside the windows and envision places in your garden where you could place a focal point plant. If you choose a flowering plant that compliments the colors inside your home you create the feeling of a larger room.

Have you looked at your gardening tools lately? This may be a good time to take a few minutes and survey your tool stash. Toss the tools that are broken beyond repair and clean up the rest of your tools to get them in good working condition. There are great “Tools” tips in January’s monthly tips.

There’s nothing like using the right tool for the job, just ask any professional tradesperson. If you have ever used the wrong size lopper when you should have used a pruning saw, you know having the right tool makes the job easier on you, the tool, and the plant.

If you have hand pruners consider buying a leather holster to hold your pruners on your side while gardening. I often see people toss their pruners on the soil. There are a few reasons why one might reconsider tossing one’s pruners: soil can have disease spreading pathogens in it and each time the pruners lie in the soil there is a good chance these pathogens can take a ride onto the next plant you prune thereby spreading the disease; the constant impact with the ground is hard on the tool; it is easy to lose your tool when it’s not at your side.

There are pruner holsters that slide onto your belt but I like to use a holster that hooks onto my pants pocket. With my pocket being lower than my belt, it’s easier on my shoulder if I don’t have to reach up as high and the hook type quickly comes off when I’m done in the garden.

You can find several of the tools that The Gardening Tutor uses at The Garden Shoppe but there are two tools that I cannot do without that you will not find in The Shoppe. One is my short handled military shovel (from a surplus store) and the other is my spading fork.
The best advice when looking for tools is to purchase the best that you can afford.

Feel free to contact Mary to see what tips she may have to help you choose the best tool. Even better, make an appointment and take The Gardening Tutor with you as your personal shopper so that the two of you can look over the tools together.

Things to Do in the Garden:

• If you enjoy sweet pea flowers in spring now is the perfect time to plant your sweet pea seeds. Remember to dig in plenty of composted material into the soil and cultivate deeply. The Gardening Tutor orders her seeds from Enchanted Sweet Peas.
• Finish planting perennials, trees, shrubs and native plants.
• Continue to plant your cool season annuals such as Pansies, Iceland Poppies, Calendula, and Primroses.
• When buying Pansies: Look for plants that are full of green growth with only enough flowers to ensure that you are buying the color you desire. Refrain from buying plants that have stretched. If you do purchase plants that have lots of flowers cut off all the open flowers (including stems) when you plant the plants. This deadheading will stimulate root growth and within no time your little plant will have flowers again!
• For months of flowers, deadhead your annual plants (spent flowers and the stem) at least weekly throughout the growing season.

Reminder! This is “Plantapalooza” time in Sonoma County:
October is the best time to plant many of our trees, shrubs, perennials and native plants! The winter rains will help these new plantings to establish their root systems. Plant bare-root plants in winter and save springtime for planting the more frost tender plants.

Now that the summer is drawing to a close I notice that people want to be out in their yards fertilizing all the plants. If your plants look unhealthy, check the soil first to make sure it’s not a watering problem (too much or not enough) that is making your plants look sickly. Adjusting the amount of water you apply may be better than applying a fertilizer.

We are entering our six months of cool/wet weather here in Sonoma County; fertilizing now will encourage green growth that may not have time to harden off before damaging low temperatures and frost arrive. Our frost dates for the Sonoma County area are generally between Halloween (October 31st) and tax day (April 15th). At this time of year, your garden will be happier if you direct your energies into applying at least a 3 inch layer of mulch on top of the soil. Applying good compost mulch will feed the soil (and therefore your plants), protect the soil from erosion, suppress weeds, and give extra protection to frost tender plants.

Earlier in the month, you can still apply a 0-10-10 fertilizer to you Camellias, Rhododendrons, and Azaleas to help form healthy flower buds. Make sure the first number on the fertilizer package is “0” which means that it has no green growth stimulating nitrogen in the formula.

Also, remember it takes time to see the results of fertilization. Over fertilizing encourages weak stems and too much growth that attracts more insects to that succulent new growth!

Things to Do in the Garden:

• Mulch, mulch, mulch…remember to mulch containers too
• Keep up with weeding. When the rains come, the annual weed seeds will sprout and will try to overtake your new plantings
• There is still time to plant your veggie starts and some seeds for a winter veggie garden!
  
• Leave the seed heads of Amaranthus, Monarda, Echinacea, to feed the birds this winter
• Clean up all the fallen fruit from under fruit trees to discourage critters and insects
• When the weather turns cool start planting your cool season annuals such as Iceland Poppies and Pansies. Keep plants watered until the rains arrive in earnest.
• Protect newly planted annuals and other plants from snails, slugs, earwigs and sowbugs
• Hold off pruning Lilac, Rhododendron, Forsythia, Camellia and other spring blooming shrubs until after they flower in spring
• Leave most ornamental grasses uncut for winter interest.
• Divide most overcrowded perennials-compost or share with friends

Some planting suggestions for October:

• California Natives-Mimulus (Monkey Flower), Sisyrinchium californicum (Yellow-eyed grass), Pacific Coast Iris
• Veggie Starts: Snap peas, Swiss Chard, Bok Choy (great cut in half and grilled), Brussels sprouts
• Veggie Seeds: Beets, Lettuce, Carrot, Radishes. Spread out the planting times so you can harvest for a longer period of time.
• Annuals: Primula malacoides (not all primrose are alike, check this one out), Iceland Poppies, Pansies, Violas,
• Bulbs etc: Freesia, ranunculus, anemones. If you like Dicentra (Bleeding Heart) start looking for the dormant roots in the nursery
• If you desire some fall color in your garden start shopping now for shrubs with fall color such as Hydrangea quercifolia (Oakleaf Hydrangea)
  

Veggie Seeds: Beets, Spinach, Radish, Peas
Spring Flowering Bulbs: Start looking in the nurseries for spring flowering bulbs, such as Freesias, Anemones, Daffodils, and Crocus
Annual Plants: Start planning where you will plant your cool season annuals, such as Pansies, Iceland Poppies, and Calendula that you will plant in October/November. Also start thinking about where you will prepare and plant your wildflower seeds and Sweet Pea seeds in November.

As soon as you get your plants home water them and place them in a spot with light shade. Even if the tag states that they are “full sun” plants it will help to place them out of full sun while you find time to get back to them.
Do what the nursery does. In the nursery, container plants are watered every day. Generally, the container size equals the amount of water needed. The smaller the container the more quickly they dry out. For instance, six packs and 4 inch containers may need to be watered more often on a sunny day with temperatures in the 90’s (morning and late afternoon) to keep them from drying out.
When you are purchasing a specimen plant in a large container (5 gallon or larger) ask the nursery professional how often the plant is being watered.
If your plants do end up drying out, water them slowly so that the water can saturate the soil. If you give them too much water too fast the water will just run off and the roots will remain dry.
On the day of planting, water your plants well while they are still in the containers. This will make sure that the roots are well hydrated and ready to be planted.
If the soil is dry when you are ready to plant make sure to water around the plant in the planting hole before you cover the hole with soil. This extra moisture in the planting hole will help keep the dry soil from leaching moisture from your newly planted root zone.
After watering the newly planted area mulch around all your plants.

Annuals: Petunia, Marigold, Impatiens, Cleome (may need staking), Zinnia, Celosia
Veggie Seeds: Lettuce, Radish, Carrot
Veggie Plants: Lemon Cucumber (save space use trellis), Eggplant, Squash, Basil, Nasturtium (not a veggie but leaves and flowers are edible)

JANUARY

TOOLS

This is a great time of year for cleaning and sharpening your gardening tools!
For shovels, hoes, trowels etc. use a stiff brush and wash the entire tool with mild soap and water (you can add a little bleach to the water if you like). After the tool is clean, dry it completely with a clean cloth. Sharpen any cutting edges. Lightly oil any wooden handles with boiled linseed oil or a vegetable oil; you may first need to use some sandpaper to smooth rough spots in the wood.

The blades of hand pruners and loppers are easily cleaned of rust and residue with 000 steel wool. Sharpen the blades. You can then lightly spray the blades with alcohol and then lightly oil with sewing machine oil. Help your hands and your plants; clean and sharpen your pruners as often as needed to make good clean cuts using the least effort.

One of the best ways to care for your tools is to store them out of the weather and hang them so the tools do not rest on their working ends.
Remember to always buy the best quality tool that you can afford.