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Festive Greens
“Deck the halls with boughs of holly.” December is traditionally
the month when the garden is brought indoors. I enjoy the smell of the greens
indoors as much as the visual impact that they make in my home. At local nurseries
wreaths, swags and garlands of greenery are for sale along with holly, cut trees
and poinsettias. However, any of us with gardens can make a raid with the pruners
in hand and come back in with plenty of raw material for holiday decorations.
It is a rare yard in the Puget Sound region that doesn’t contain at least a few conifers. True firs and pines give off a wonderful fragrance and western red cedar is great for making garlands. My Hollywood juniper is one of my favorites because of its bluish “berries.”
Despite the fact that my name is Holly, I don’t have a single holly bush in my yard. I like the plant, particularly the variegated varieties, but I hate to garden among their prickly dropped leaves. But hollies are just one of many plants with colorful berries. You might find red or orange-red berries on your cotoneaster, skimmia, pyracantha, stranvaesia or aucuba.
If you are not a purist about red and green, you can get purple berries on beautyberry (Callicarpa), hot pink ones on pernettya or metallic blue ones on Viburnum davidii. The white berries of our native snowberry add a nice touch as well.
If you don’t have many berry-producing shrubs, think about adding a few of these plants to your garden. They will perk up the winter landscape and feed your feathered friends.
Soil Testing
There is not much that needs to be done in the garden in December, but, if you
have a little time, order a soil test. The labs aren’t so busy now. You
will get a quick report and have one thing out of the way. We have a publication,
Fact Sheet #6, about how to collect soil samples. Many labs can do the tests,
but costs and reports vary greatly. Make sure your lab will provide fertilizer
recommendations, not just numbers that you have to try to interpret.
I like to use the soil lab at University of Massachusetts. They are inexpensive, so I can afford to test the various sections of my garden separately. Our office can provide you with a U of Mass. soil test order form. Just drop by or send a self-addressed, stamped, legal-sized envelope to Soil Test, Snohomish County WSU Extension, 600 128th Street SW, Everett WA 98208.
Ice and Snow Tips
I want to remind you to use sand not salt on your icy sidewalks, if there are
plants (including lawn) that will get the briny run-off. The sodium in salt
is bad for your soil and can kill plants.
Our area has already had some snow and the resultant broken tree limbs on power lines. The snow in western Washington is usually very wet and heavy. It can do considerable damage to our plants, shrubs in particular, if not removed. Try to knock it off limbs before too much accumulates. (I use an old broom handle.) Do it by gently thumping the branches from below. If you attack from above, the added downward force may be just enough to break the branch.
The Perfect Gift for the Gardener on your List
The Master Gardener Foundation of Snohomish County is offering a Sustainable
Gardening Lecture Series. These seven garden talks feature experts from the
Puget Sound Region including Debra Prinzing, Ed Hume and Scott Conner. They
will be held every other Friday morning (9:30-11:30) at our education center
in south Everett from January 9th to April 2nd. Some tickets probably will be
available at the door for $12 per lecture, but the whole series is only $50.
Phone 425 357-6025 for more information or go to the website.
Hortsense: Managing plant problems with Integrated Pest Management
