Newsletter Articles
Christmas Gifts For Your Garden
By Richard Flowers, ACCNP-Green Thumb Nursery-Ventura
Christmas is right around the corner and most people who are plant lovers, garden enthusiasts or home gardeners usually receive garden related gifts for themselves. How about giving your garden and plants the gifts they deserve. You can give back to your garden and favorite plants this holiday season by providing much needed care so they can thrive and look better. You can also give your garden a Christmas gift by adding seasonal blooming plants, trees, shrubs, and edibles that enhance and freshens your outdoor space.
December is the time to plant Camellias. Several types of Camellias are in bud and bloom during this time like Yuletide (Red) and Setsugaka or White Doves (both white) as well as several others they are in flower bud and ready to open shortly. Your shade garden will sure appreciate the added color and charm for the holidays. What’s best is that these plants will keep blooming each year and they will live many years to come for you to enjoy.
Turn your garden into an edible and useful space for the holidays. Cool-Season vegetables are great to plant now such as Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Celery, Kale, Kohlrabi, Mustard, Lettuce and root crops like Beets, Carrots, Radishes, and Turnips. Don’t forget now is also a great time add Figs, Blueberries, Grapes, and Berries. The gifts of edibles to your garden will reward you in just a few months. What else could be a better Christmas gift for your garden, something that gives back to you, healthy homegrown produce.
Soon enough, in the later part of December, your garden will be delighted with the gift of dormant roses waiting to be planted. Your garden will thank you and return the gift by blooming in just a few short months.
You garden may need a little sprucing up for the up coming holidays, so why not add cool-season flowers, bright colors make for a festive front yard. Now is the time you can fill in those bare spots with flowers like Cyclamen, Alyssum, Pansies, Snapdragons, and Stock. Plan for the near future with spring blooms by adding wildflower seed. Sow seeds now for spring blooms. Consider sowing a mixture of wild flowers or specific ones from spring color like Cosmos, Gaillardia, Foxglove, Larkspur, Nasturtiums, and their floral display may last into early summer.
Now is the time to give the gift to your garden by enhancing it with blooming perennials and shrubs. Especially in the earlier parts of the month since the weather has been mild, Mexican Bush Sage is still in bloom as well as many other salvias, Lavender, Sweet Pea Bush, and Iceberg Rose. You can also plant Chinese Pistache, Sweet Gum, Ginkgo, and the fruiting Pomegranate for wonderful fall color. These plants are in fall color now in many areas. If you missed the fall color time and they have no leaves on them, you can still plant them now, don’t worry, next year you will be able enjoy the treat. Add colorful red berries to your garden like California native Toyon, Holly, and Firethorn that will attract a much needed gift to your outdoor space like birds and bees. Believe it or not this is a great time to plant California native and Mediterranean plants.
Now is also a great opportunity you could plant holiday inspiration in your garden, such as live potted Christmas trees. Add this wonderful living gift to your garden and enjoy for years to come.
The greatest gift you can provide to your garden is to improve the overall health and appearance of your beloved plants so you will be rewarded for years to come. This happens to be the soil. Enhance your garden with mulch, the gift of mulch is many: improves soil as it breaks down, minimizes weeds, reduces water evaporation significantly, lessens water usage, is aesthetically pleasing , and increases bioactivity in the soil. Mulch makes your plants grow better. The leaves that fall form deciduous plants can be raked up and put into your compost pile or bin. Many deciduous trees and shrubs are starting to loose their leaves (going dormant). You can collect these leaves and add them to your compost bin or pile and soon enough this material will decompose and you can distribute this material back in your garden soil and thus you will be rewarded with fresh organic compost which enriches your soil making your plants healthier and strong. The greatest gift of all to your landscape is healthy soil equals healthy plants. Homemade compost also makes an excellent mulch.
You can start to prune many types of deciduous fruit trees like Apples, Peaches, Plums, and Apricots now as they start to go dormant. They also need to be dormant sprayed with horticultural oils ,copper or lime-sulfur and applied after plants gone dormant and dropped its leaves. Dormant sprays are used to control funguses and over-wintering mites and insects such as scale.
Now is also a good time to prune pines, oaks, and other deciduous trees of weak or cracked limbs, and open up the canopies so wind can pass through them. If the trees are big, hire a certified arborist. Give perennials and shrubs a little trim also for Christmas to make them look tidier by clipping off dead or brown branches that have accumulated beneath the healthy green growth. This will also stimulate healthy, new growth. For those of you who are into California Native Plants, this is the growing season for them. If the weather is dry, water sparingly. These types of plants can also be pruned now. During the holiday season let your Avocado leaves drop to the ground. The leaf litter is very beneficial to the life of the Avocado.
During the cooler and wet weather of December it is the perfect time to protect your plants for Christmas by baiting and controlling against snails and slugs. Don’t forget to provide a much needed gift for your gardening tools and equipment by cleaning, repairing, and sharpening them so they can last longer and preform a more effective job at maintaining your plants.
If you live in an area that might get an occasional frost do your plants a Christmas favor, keep your plantings well-watered. If a freeze threatens plants they are more likely to survive because a “turgid” well-hydrated plant is better-equipped to recover than a dehydrated plant. If chilly nights are in the forecast provide overnight protection when frost threatens. Cover Bougainvillea, Fuchsia, Hibiscus, and other sub-tropicals with large cardboard boxes or drape old sheets or tarps on stakes over them.
Give established winter booming plants a gift by feeding them now so they can reward you with blooms in January and February. If Azalea and Gardenia foliage is light or yellowish-green water with a solution of chelated iron. If you have Cymbidiums, it is best feed them for bloom (low nitrogen fertilizer) until the buds open.
Many people still have warm season Bermuda Grass that turns off color during the winter, give your lawn a holiday treat and over-seed with annual rye, there is still time to do that if you haven’t already done so in November.. Also, if the weather is warm and dry you may need to water the lawn.
For those of you who have houseplants be kind to them during the Christmas season and be sure they’re not getting blasted with hot air from a heater vent or fireplace. If your plants are close to windows they may get too much cold air at night so move them or provide a shield between them and the window. House plants like to be cozy for the holidays, the most comfortable temperature range for most indoor plants is between 65-75 degrees f– if you are comfortable chances are your plants are too.
There is so much more you can do for your beloved plants in your garden to pamper them for Christmas. Don’t hesitate to reach out with your favorite Green Thumb Nursery we will be glad to guide you through your gardening endeavors through Christmas time. Green Thumb has all the garden related supplies, equipment, fertilizers, pest control, and plant material to make your garden and plants thrive and grow better for the Holiday Season.
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