Hi gardeners
It’s another gloomy day in Michigan. Michigan is one
of the cloudiest states in winter because we are surrounded by the Great Lakes.
Cold air moving over warmer water makes clouds. I can take the cold when it’s
sunny, but I hate all the gloom. December and January are the worse, it seems
like every day is dreary.
We didn’t get the worse of the storm that passed
through and for that I am grateful. I prepared for an ice storm but the glazing
we got was light and didn’t do much damage. Ice does so much damage to the
trees, especially the white pines around here.
There’s certainly nothing blooming outside right now,
even the pansies have given up. Inside I have plenty of blooms and birds
singing so it makes it a bit better. Create your own sunny day, that’s the best
plan.
It’s the time of year that gardeners start dreaming
about next years garden. Everyone does things online now but if you haven’t
experienced the joys of garden catalogs in your hands on a cold winter day you
should try some. The catalogs are already filling my mailbox and I’m “making my
lists and checking them twice”.
Some nurseries don’t put out print catalogs anymore,
but many still do and will send them if you request them. Some catalogs are
valuable resources for information on care and selection of plants. On the right of this blog there’s a list of
pages and there’s one for a huge list of garden catalogs. I am going to be checking this page in the
next couple weeks to add to it and remove any links that aren’t valid. If you know of a catalog or online site I
haven’t listed let me know- kimwillis151@gmail.com
Keep your trees from being stolen
You may have heard that there is a shortage of fresh Christmas
trees in some areas. If you have nice landscape evergreens you may want to keep
a close eye on them. Every year people have beautiful trees stolen from their
property and this year it could get worse. Even city trees get stolen.
Nothing looks worse than an evergreen with it’s top
cut off or an ugly tree stump left in the lawn.
A larger evergreen is a valuable part of your landscaping and costs
money and time to replace. Trees close to the road are targeted more often, but
I have heard stories where people drove off the road with a car or snowmobile
or walked some distance to cut trees. And sometimes it’s not a single tree, but
several trees that get taken at the same time.
Mark your property with no trespassing signs for a
start. That helps if you catch someone and want to prosecute. Then you may want to add signs to nice evergreens
saying; “Warning, this tree has been sprayed with a toxic substance” or similar
wording. Buy some of those “pee” scents
sold in sporting goods stores for hunting, mix with water and spray the tree. They
wash off in a few weeks.
I have heard of people mixing eggs with water,
letting it rot and spraying trees. If the tree is in a more isolated area you
can even spray paint an X on two sides to destroy its looks for a Christmas
tree. That too washes off in time but may not be the best solution for trees you
look at every day. I know one guy whose trees are mainly for wildlife who just
cuts random branches out of the tree to make them undesirable.
Trail and other cameras can help you find a thief but
if they aren’t being monitored the tree may be cut down anyway. Motion detector
alarms could be used if they can be heard inside the house. In some cases, you may be able to chain the
tree to a post or fence until after the holidays.
If you look at your trees and can see a nice
Christmas tree or trees there, it pays to monitor your property closely before
the holidays. Let your neighbors know that if they see someone on your property
looking at trees, they should notify you. Make it as hard as possible for
people to get on your property unnoticed as you can. Your trees will thank you.
 |
These would make good Christmas trees |
What
are the best evergreen species for Christmas trees?
Best is subjective of course, and usually best means
the type of tree you have always had through the years. But if you haven’t had
a fresh cut tree before you may want some tips. The most common Christmas tree
species sold are balsam, fraiser and concolor firs, douglas fir, scotch pine, blue
spruce, white spruce and white pine. Different species may be popular in
different areas of the country and easier to find than others.
This year a shortage of all Christmas trees is
reported, but firs seem to be the species with the worst shortage. If you like firs get yours early. The firs
all smell nice, the very essence of Christmas, but have a more open shape and
don’t take heavy ornaments that well. The needles aren’t scratchy but drop
fairly quickly inside.
Scotch pines are dense and pleasing in shape, hold
heavy ornaments and smell pretty good. They are prickly but hold their needles
a long time inside. They are often the
least expensive tree.
Blue spruce and other spruces have good shapes, are
dense and strong but their smell is not pleasant. They are also scratchy when
decorating. Most spruce hold their needles a long time. They are generally more
expensive than other trees.
White pines that have been pruned for a denser shape
make pretty good Christmas trees but are more open than pines or spruce and
don’t take heavy ornaments well. They smell nice, but not strongly. They retain
needles well and are said to be the least allergenic of the Christmas tree
species.
An important tip in choosing fresh trees is to
examine the trunk to make sure the bottom of the trunk is straight and not too
large for your tree stand. Shake a tree
you are looking at lightly to see how many needles it loses. They will all lose
some, but if a great many needles fall you may want to skip that one.
A fresh tree should not spend more than 10 days
inside so if you buy early store it outside in a cool, shady place. If it’s
above freezing it’s a good idea to stand the tree in a bucket of water. Make sure the deer and pets can’t get to it.
Thinking about Christmas presents for
gardeners?
It’s that time of year when we are desperately
racking our brains for the perfect gift for someone in our life. If that someone likes plants we often think
of gardening gifts. Here’s some ideas.
Gift baskets
Gift baskets are always a good choice for the
gardener in your life, if you know a bit about gardening yourself and can make
wise choices. Start with a nice reusable
basket, maybe a “trug” to carry veggies. A nice flowerpot, a garden cart, or
even a wheelbarrow can also be containers.
Add things like tools, decorative plant tags, a
garden apron, garden clogs, hats, t-shirts, garden gloves, windchimes, kneeling
pads, and garden books to your basket. Grow lights and seed starting equipment
could be added. Mugs with garden sayings,
water bottles, even bug spray and poison ivy soap can be added. A big bag of expensive potting mix might help
fill those larger “baskets”.
If you buy quality seeds and not left-over seeds or
seeds that come from China, you could add seeds. I would skip live plants but a gift
certificate to a store or catalog is a great addition.
A garden gift basket for kids is a good way to get a
child interested in gardening. Use child
size gloves and tools and maybe some children’s garden books in the
basket. In this case some good seeds,
small pots and some potting medium might be a great addition.
Spinners and solar lights
Wind spinners are still a big craze in gardens. If you are going to give one as a gift, make
sure it’s a quality one and that it fits the size of the recipient’s garden.
It’s a good idea to see if the gardener already has wind spinners because you
can definitely have too many.
Solar lights have come a long way and there are some
beautiful solar sculptures out there. Try not to buy a cheap plastic or resin
thing, but a nice metal or glass sculpture with lighted elements. Strands of tiny solar lights shaped like
lanterns, dragonflies and other whimsical objects make good gifts. Some
gardeners may appreciate solar stakes to light garden paths.
Hydroponic set ups and grow lights
Hydroponic systems (growing plants in water) are very
popular and range from small countertop units to huge units in tents of their
own. If someone you know is going to be growing their own legal marihuana you
may want to gift them with one of the larger set ups. But if the gardener you
are thinking of just wants to grow some herbs inside, a countertop unit may
work well.
Do be advised that there are limits to the small
units. Despite advertising hype, you can’t grow all the veggies or herbs your
family wants to eat in a single unit, unless your family hates herbs and
vegetables. And these units must include a grow light if they are to be
successful. Shop carefully, pay attention to things like light wattages, and
dimensions of the units. Prices vary widely and you get what you pay for
certainly pertains here.
Even if they aren’t growing marihuana grow lights
make things much easier for indoor gardeners. If someone you know has a garden
hobby that has outgrown the window space they have available, grow lights are a
great gift. Grow lights are much safer and use less electricity than they did a
few years ago. They are less expensive too. You can use them for plants growing
in soil as well as water and for starting seeds they are almost necessary.
Humorous gifts
I usually don’t recommend garden art as gifts unless
you know the gardeners taste very well. Plastic and resin figurines, fake
steppingstones and cutesy signs aren’t everyone’s favorite additions to the
garden. Many gardeners are gifted with
them and don’t quite know what to do with them.
But humorous elements that don’t cost a lot can be appreciated and may
find a place somewhere in the garden.
And sometimes you may just want to give a gift that
sparks a laugh. That’s the case with these little finger attachments I am
showing you here. Supposedly they have a
practical application, but I wouldn’t be able to gift them with a straight
face. Humorous gifts may not be that
practical, but they can be fun.
 |
| You are supposed to slip these "tools" over a finger. Imagine giving them as a garden gift. LOL |
Gifts I don’t recommend
Seed kits are everywhere online and most of them are
worthless. They often contain seeds of plants that are very difficult to grow
from seed, seed that is old and seed that is of dubious quality. Many of these
kits come from China. They promise herb
gardens, wildflower gardens, complete vegetable gardens and so on. The premise
and promise are ridiculous.
These kits are garbage and very overpriced for what
they contain. You could put together your own seed kit with quality seeds for
less. It’s tempting to buy them when you can’t think of anything else but try
hard to avoid the temptation. A gift certificate to a seed catalog would be a
far better gift.
Plant of the month gifts don’t usually work out as
planned and I have known few people who were satisfied with them. The plants
are often not what was promised, not shipped because of weather, small and weak
for the price or damaged in shipping.
They are often quite expensive, and you could buy all the plants listed
at the same size cheaper somewhere close to home with better results. It seems
like a good idea, but it doesn’t translate from idea to reality well.
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| This is a stupid idea, you won't grow good berries from this and for the $23 plus it costs depending on seller . you could buy plants. |
Second Nature- a Gardener’s Education,
Michael Pollan
Book review
You may have read Pollan’s Botany of Desire
or the Omnivores Dilemma and if you liked those you will
probably like Second Nature.
In fact, this book was Michael Pollan’s first book, published nearly 30
years ago. Although I had read many of Pollan’s
books this one escaped me until recently. I am so glad I didn’t let the 30
years ago thing keep me from reading it. Even though things change over time,
the way people think about gardening seems to remain constant.
This is not a how to garden book, rather it’s a book
about the philosophy of gardening. It explores ideas about gardening, set in
the background of the author working on his first real gardens on an abandoned
New England farm. If you ever debated what a weed is or how much you should
interfere with nature, you’ll understand Pollan very well.
Pollan tells about how his grandfather gardened and
how his father didn’t. Indeed, after a
complaint from neighbors about his unmowed lawn, Pollan’s father mowed his
initials in the lawn and left it. Pollan’s grandfather, a relatively well to do
man, had a huge vegetable garden and delighted in giving away baskets of
produce. He also had an immaculate lawn
and extensive rose garden.
I wonder if the desire to garden skips a generation
sometimes, as this is my own experience, and I have been heard the stories
about grandparents instilling a love of gardening in people many times. Both sets of my grandparents were avid
gardeners, but my parents weren’t into gardening. My mother dabbled a bit in gardening as she
got older and my father grew a few tomato plants after his father quit growing
them, but I learned about gardening from my grandparents.
When Pollan finally has a place of his own and has to
tame the wilderness, so to speak, he gets all kinds of advice, which he
ruminates on. I thought the native
plants thing was a pretty recent fad, but it seems it had reared its head even
thirty years ago, although it maybe wasn’t such a cultish thing as it is now. Pollan
struggles with his grandfather’s style of gardening and the back to nature
style of gardening until he finds his own style of gardening. I think many readers will relate to that
struggle.
The book is divided into seasons, a good way to go
about ordering a garden book because how and what we think about and do in the
garden is generally seasonal for most of us. In winter Pollans thoughts are on
planning his next garden, as are most gardeners. He talks about seed catalogs, and most older
gardeners will recognize the names of the catalogs he talks about. Even now, in
the age of online stores many of those catalogs still exist.
Pollan speaks of White Flower Farm and Wayside Farm
as being the top tier of catalogs, catalogs for discriminating gardeners not
afraid to spend money. White Flower Farm
is for the snooty New England gardeners who adhere to the English way of
gardening, with a certain distain for newer hybrids. Wayside is the somewhat more flamboyant but
still aristocratic southern gardeners wish book.
Gurneys and certain other catalogs Pollen classified
as middle class catalogs, are ones that tend to empathize the new and
“improved, the biggest, the sweetest and so on, and which specialize in
bargains and deals. Then there are the “hippy” 70’s style catalogs such as
Vermont Bean and Pinetree, which specialize in open pollinated, organic, and
heritage type plants. And then there are the specialty catalogs such as Cooks
Garden, which feature exotic, foreign vegetables for gastronomic pleasure.
Pollan notes that there is much information and
advice given in these seed and nursery catalogs and that they are inspiration
for many of the gardens we make. Sitting in winter pouring over those garden
catalogs before we all became internet shoppers was as much an education for
gardeners as any classes they could take.
I do wish more new gardeners would spend time with the “book in hand”
catalogs and not looking at internet ads and flashy online catalogs.
Spring, summer and fall sections of the book all have
interesting and somewhat humorous garden musings too. I identified strongly
with much of what Pollan writes about gardening. If you read the book, I am
sure you’ll find much to agree with and chuckle over too. You can buy Second
Nature on Amazon and in many bookstores.
December Almanac
This
month’s full moon is called the Full Cold, Oak Moon or Long Nights moon and it occurs
on December 12th. The moon will be high in the sky and cast a lot of
shadows. If snow is on the ground and the skies clear it will be a very bright
night. Moon perigee is the 18th and moon apogee is the 4th.
On
Tuesday December 10th Venus will pass Saturn. Just after sunset look
toward the southwest and you’ll see a very bright Venus (if the clouds allow)
and a pretty bright Saturn very close together. You won’t actually see them
pass each other.
There
are two meteor displays that may be visible in December. On the 14th, at 2 am there is the
peak of the best regular meteor event, the Geminids meteor shower. The nearly
full moon will be a problem to seeing the meteors this year, but some will be
visible. Some meteors may be visible from the Geminids from the 4th through
the 17th. But on the peak day around 120 meteors or shooting stars
may be seen per hour. The best viewing is after midnight, to about 2 am. Look
toward the northwest.
On
December 22nd – 23rd will be the peak of a lesser meteor
shower, the Ursids meteor shower, which typically produces about 20 meteors per
hour at its peak. The night of the 22nd with a crescent moon, should
provide excellent viewing from midnight to dawn. This will be especially nice
if you are having a solstice bonfire.
Sunday,
December 22, 2017 is the winter solstice. It marks the longest night of the
year, the end of the celestial year and the beginning of winter. On winter solstice the sun is at its farthest
point in the southern sky and lowest point on the horizon. (For an interesting
site that will show you where the sun and moon are in the sky at the exact time
you access the site go to this site and choose your closest city.)
You’ll notice
that the earliest sunset and the shortest day are not the same. The earliest sunset occurs December 5th
when the sun sets at 5 pm (in the Flint, MI. area). And the sun will set at that time until
December 14th – when it gains a minute. It’s the time of sunrise that makes the
difference in day length. On the solstice the sun rises at 8:03 am and sets at
5:03pm in the Flint, Mi. area. Your area may have slightly different sunrise
and sunset times.
December’s
traditional birthstone is turquoise. If cold
December gave you birth, The month of snow and ice and mirth, Place on your
hand a Turquoise blue, Success will bless whate'er you do. – old folk saying. However, since it is the month of buying,
modern jewelers want you to have lots of choices and they added zircon and
tanzanite to the birthstone list.
The
December birth flower is oddly enough the narcissus. This may be because it was associated with
death, (its poisonous) by the ancient Romans and Greeks but now it is often
used as a symbol of hope. We are
entering the time of the death of the old year but still, it seems odd as a
flower choice. In flower “language”
narcissus is said to mean “you are the only one” or alternatively faithfulness,
respect and modesty.
Recently
holly has been favored to replace narcissus as the December birth flower and to
me seems more appropriate. Holly is a
symbol of domestic happiness in flower language. Orchids are also listed as the
December flower in some places.
Things
to celebrate in December besides the solstice and Christmas include National
Mutt day the 2nd, Pearl Harbor Day- the 7th and the 12th
is Poinsettia day, Gingerbread house day and National cocoa day, National Bake
Cookies day is the 18th ( or roast a suckling pig, your choice) ,
Look for Evergreens day is on the 19th. Besides being Christmas Eve the 24th
is National Chocolate day and National Egg Nog day. December 31st is
World Peace/ Meditation Day as well as New Year’s Eve.
December
is National Bingo month, National AIDS awareness month, National Buckwheat
month and Universal Human Rights month.
Buttermilk bread
Winter is the time for baking and I just made some
buttermilk bread the other day. When you make bread, you get the house warm and
full of good smells and then you get to eat hot bread with butter. It doesn’t
get much better on a gloomy day. This buttermilk bread is simple but has a soft
cakelike texture and tastes wonderful. The recipe makes two medium loaves.
Ingredients
3½ cups unbleached flour plus maybe a ½ cup more for dusting
the bread board
1½ cups buttermilk
3 tablespoons butter, you may need a bit more if you
butter the bread top before baking
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 package of fast rising yeast (2 tablespoons)
Dried Rosemary (optional)
Directions
Preheat your oven at 200 degrees F for 5-10 minutes,
then shut it off, leaving the door closed.
Warm a ½ cup of buttermilk and a pinch of sugar in a
small bowl until it feels barely warm. Make sure it doesn’t get too warm, if it’s
too hot the yeast will die. Sprinkle the yeast on the warm milk and set it
aside for 5-10 minutes. After that time,
the mixture should look a little foamy.
Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large
bowl and stir in the sugar and salt. Add the rest of the buttermilk and blend
well.
Add the yeast mixture to the bowl and stir gently.
Next add the flour a cup at a time, stirring well
after each addition. As the dough gets stiffer you may need to dust your hands
with flour and work the flour into dough with your hands.
Turn the dough out on a floured surface and knead for
5 minutes or until you get a nice elastic feeling, slightly shiny dough.
Melt the rest of the butter and lightly coat a large
bowl with it. Save unused butter. Place the dough in the bowl, turn it over
once, and cover it lightly with a paper towel.
Put the bowl in the oven you warmed, leaving it
turned off. The oven shouldn’t feel too warm, you want it around 100 degrees.
Let the dough rise for 1-2 hours, until it doubles in size.
Take the dough out of the bowl and put it on your
floured surface again. Punch it down and
knead it lightly for a couple minutes. Divide the dough into two even portions.
Lightly butter two bread pans. Form your dough into
two loaves and put them in the pans.
Turn dough over once in pan to butter the top. Cover with paper towels
and let the dough sit for 45 minutes to an hour, until it has doubled in size.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Brush the tops of the
loaves with melted butter and sprinkle on some dried rosemary if you like. Put
the bread in the oven and bake about 35 minutes, or until it is lightly browned
and pulling away from the sides of the pan.
Turn hot bread out on a plate or rack. Let it cool 10
minutes before trying to cut it. (You
should wait because it cuts better if it cools a bit, but chances are good you’ll
be dying to taste it and cut it immediately.)
Wrap bread tightly after it cools to store it. It freezes well.
How did it get so late so soon?
Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness
how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?
-Dr. Seuss-
Kim Willis
All parts of this blog are copyrighted and may not be used without
permission.
And So On….
Find Michigan garden events/classes
here:
(This
is the Lapeer County Gardeners facebook page)
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If you have a comment or opinion you’d like to share, send it to
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publish what I want. Contact me at KimWillis151@gmail.com
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