Let’s Get Gardening!
I hope you’ll forgive me for not having gotten a newsletter out for December. I came down with a miserable cold right at Thanksgiving, and kept planning to get to it when I felt better, but never quite did. Of course, there were a number of things I didn’t get to late in the year, including cleaning out my vegetable garden and planting my spring-blooming bulbs. But the biggest thing was not planting my garlic! I am hoping that the somewhat warmer temps we are experiencing right now continue for just a little bit longer, so I can get that most important task done.
-Jennifer
This month’s issue of Let’s Get Gardening
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter for seasonal gardening advice and recommendations for your garden, yard, and bird feeding.
The Garden Mill will be closed for the entire month of January and will reopen on February 1st.
We will still be around much of the month, doing cleanup and inventory, and getting in lots of new products for the new season. We just won’t be open for shopping in the store.
While we’re closed, you can still shop our Online Store, and we can make arrangements to meet you curbside, or ship your items to you.
It’s hard to think of January as a “gardening” month, but it is! There are lots of things you can do that are garden-related this month, even if you can’t necessarily be out in your gardens as much as you’d like.
Indoors:
- I’m terrible about paying much attention, beyond watering, to my indoor plants all spring and summer – I’m too
busy with the outdoor plants! Winter is my chance to try to make it up to them. Take some time to clean off leaves, which if they are anything like mine, are covered with a fine layer of dust. That layer of dust can keep the plants from getting sun, and they need all the help they can get in that area when the daylight hours are so short, and what sun we do get is not very strong. - Along with light, ample humidity is a challenge during the winter for indoor plants. If you don’t have a whole-house humidifier, and it’s not possible to have a room humidifier in every room where you have plants, there are still ways to increase the humidity around them. One way is to put the plant on a tray of pebbles that is kept filled with water.
- Don’t fertilize indoor plants for the next few months, as they need a resting period just like outdoor plants. There are some exceptions to this rule, such as African violets, which need to be fertilized regularly to keep blooming.
- Winter is also a good time to re-pot any plants that have outgrown their current pots and are getting root-bound. Root-bound plants dry out faster, and generally don’t do well – looking a bit sickly the longer they are stuck in an old pot. When re-potting, don’t go up too much in pot size, unless the plant is severely root-bound, and a significantly larger pot is the only way to spread the roots out. The general rule of thumb is to only go up one to two inches more in diameter and height than the current pot.
- If you got a poinsettia or Christmas cactus this holiday season, and are not sure how to care for it, this article from PennState Extension can help you figure it out.
- Another plant often purchased at this time of year is the Norfolk Island pine, a lovely pine native to an island off the coast of New Zealand.
Outdoors:
- Now is a great time to plan to take care of problems in your flower beds and other landscaping. Remember what your gardens looked like this summer – were there things that needed a pick-me-up, that maybe didn’t do so well last year, or that needed dividing? Plan now for what you want to do with your flower beds to give you a head start on spring.
- Another thing to think about for your landscape is how it looks right now. Does your garden have any winter interest, or is it all about spring and summer? Start thinking now about what you might add in the
spring and summer to enhance how the beds look in the winter. Having something beautiful to look at in the winter can really help get you through until you can be out there! Things to consider include evergreen shrubs and trees, plants with winter color, such as red osier dogwood or cranberry cotoneaster, and native grasses that can provide different textures. - Statuary and structures can also add interest to your garden year-round. Arbors and arches give height that can stand out against the snow in winter and provide support for climbing vines in the summer. Statuary can add a little whimsy to any season.
- January is a great time to plan your vegetable garden, too! Take the time now to make decisions about what you want to grow this year – was there something that did really well in your garden last year that you want to be sure to get again or something that didn’t do as well as you had hoped, and you might want to try something different this year? Seed catalogs are hitting mailboxes already – and we’ve gotten our first shipment of seeds! Check out our website to see what’s in now – you can order online and pick up in the store (curbside in January or in-person starting February 1st), or we can ship them to you. We will have more coming in over the next couple of months, so check back often!
- While there’s no hint of snow in our forecast for the next little while, we know it will come. Remember to clear snow from evergreens if it is weighing the branches down, to prevent damage. Gently brush the snow off, but be careful not to bang on the branches, as that is likely to break them.
Birds:
- I never get tired of watching the birds in my yard! Keeping my feeders full could be a full-time job if I let it, partly because I have a lot of feeders, and partly because I have a lot of birds at my feeders (hmmm…. Do you think there’s some sort of correlation there?).
- I’ve been asked many times whether a person should be concerned about starting to feed birds in the winter if they are planning to be away for any length of time. The answer is no – you can safely leave the birds for an extended period without worrying that they have become so dependent on you feeding them that they will go hungry while you’re away. Birds are great at finding sources of food wherever they can.
- I know I’ve said it before, but it’s important enough that I feel like I need to be that broken record – please consider providing the birds with a source of water during the winter. With temperatures going below
freezing, water is hard to find when you live outdoors. Water is no less important to birds than to us, but they can’t just turn on a tap to get it when they need it. Putting out a heated birdbath or putting a de-icer in your birdbath can be a literal lifesaver for birds during the winter.
More info on all of these tips can be found in our monthly newsletter: Read the full January 2023 issue of Let’s Get Gardening
Happy Gardening!
14th Annual Chocolate Extravaganza
Chelsea’s 14th Annual Chocolate Extravaganza
Saturday, February 11th
Join us and all the downtown Chelsea Merchants and Restaurants to celebrate all things Chocolate. Festivities will include Chocolate Demonstrations by Michigan chocolate makers, chocolatiers, and bakers, and a Penguin Egg Hunt for the little ones! Merchants will also have great gifts for your favorite valentine, and restaurants and bars are sure to have specials on chocolate treats.
More details to come about the event at shopchelseamich.com
RENEE’S GARDEN SEEDS ARE IN!
Visit our website shop to get yours now!