Getting Ready for Spring!     

Dig in the old clothes drawer or bin and find some things to wear in the garden, cause you are gonna get dirty.

Get a good pair of gardening gloves to protect your hands from rose thorns and other sharp things that can dig in and damage you. Get a good floppy sun hat. Got to protect the complexion from the damaging sunrays.

Now you can go to the nursery and choose some nice flowers, shrubs, and don't forget the herbs. Herbs are easy to grow, and have so many uses.

I find containers for plants cost a little less at Wal-Mart, and if you are lucky enough to have one near you, a Garden Ridge store. Silk flowers for arrangements are as good or better quality and much less costly at Garden Ridge than at Michael's.

Make sure you have some hand tools for gardening. If you have roses and/or small shrubs that need to be pruned, you will need a good, sharp pair of Parrot Nosed Pruning Shears. You need a trowel, maybe a wide one and a narrower one for planting bulbs, and a hand cultivator.

For some good quality tools, and some with easy handgrips, and other good tools and supplies, as well as a very good selection of plants and flowers, go to this site.

www.garden.org

It is the website for the National Gardening association.

There is some good information there, and great pictures, a zone map, and information on each plant as to which zones they are suitable for. I have been ordering from that site for about 7 or 8 years, and have never had an unsatisfactory experience.

Now you are ready to put on the old clothes and go out and play in the dirt.

Stop at the grocery store and buy some lemons, and a big bag of oranges. When you get your flowers planted, chop the peels of the lemons and scatter them in your flowerbeds, and containers you have planted. That will keep the neighborhood kitties from using your flowerbeds and containers for their litter box. These need to be renewed, so whenever you use a lemon, chop the peels and add to the flowerbeds being sure to throw the peels in a different area each time.

Get your grandchildren and/or the neighborhood kids over to help you eat oranges, and chop those peels to scatter all over your yard, to keep out the fire ants. Orange peels work a lot better than Amdro and other fire ant treatments, and orange peels are not poisonous to animals and children that play or walk in your yard. 

Be sure to plant some rosemary to use in cooking, and to put on cabinet and pantry shelves, under appliances etc, to keep roaches out of your house, some lavender for potpourri and to keep houseflies out.

I plant a big planter of lavender at each entrance to keep houseflies from coming inside when a door is opened. I use it for potpourri, and tuck some down in the side of my waterbed frame. The heat from the waterbed mattress brings out the aroma better, and lavender is a relaxing aroma. It helps you get a relaxed night's sleep.

There is a trailing variety of rosemary, and tucked into the edges of planers and hanging baskets make a handsome as well as useful addition to these. We just put a birch planter the length of the back of our house. I have azaleas planted there; a climbing rose in the wider circle that brings the planter around the south corner of the house. I put a few herbs in among the plants, and some dusty Millers.

Dusty Miller dries well in Silica Gel, and is a great looking filler for potpourri. The white leaves dry white, and look exactly as the do growing. They add a good contrast to the flowers you use for the potpourri, and give it an attractive lacy look.

Don't forget sweet basil, oregano, marjoram, sage, thyme, chives, parsley, tarragon, and any other herbs you use.

Remember to use twice as much fresh herb as you would dried herbs in cooking.

The fresh herbs give a much more subtle flavor, so more is necessary to get the full flavor. They do make a big difference in the finished product.

I plant my herbs in containers so that I can bring them in when the weather gets too cold, so I can have fresh herbs all year round.

I plant rosemary in the ground. It grows to a 3ft. tall shrub about 3 ft. around, and it spreads from there. It will send up new growth shoots.

In warmer climates, zone 6 and further south, it is evergreen. Planted around the perimeter of your home, it will keep many insects from even coming into your house.

I found some plastic containers that hold about 1 quart, have a snap-on lid, and are just the right size for fitting in the door of my upright freezer. I harvest the leaves of the herbs, and chop green, red and yellow bell peppers, lay them on a cookie sheet and freeze then, then empty them into those containers, label the containers with a marking pen and store then in the freezer door.

When I want to use them for cooking, I just take out as much as I need, and snap the lid back on. I have fresh herbs all year long that way.

Frozen in containers, and planted indoors in containers are two ways to have fresh herbs the year round.

After I have all my containers half full, I let the herbs fill out again, and give those to neighbors, use the ones I need, and finish filling my freezer containers.

I have all the fresh herbs I need, supply my neighbors, and if drought, or a sudden freeze, gets my plants, I have the backup herbs in my freezer.

If you haven't put sugar on your lawn, now is the time to do it. If you still have snow on the ground that is ok. The sugar will just melt with the snow, and go into the soil.  Sugar will revitalize the beneficial microbes that enrich your soil.

Till next time!

Chalotte

Send questions and comments to:
charlotte34@verizon.net