January 2002

Edible

Try one of the new All-America Selection vegetables and herbs for 2002. These new cultivars have been judged superior based on their performance in trial gardens across the U. S.

• Cucumber 'Diva' has a 4-5 inch fruit which is bitter free and almost seedless. Harvest 58 days from sowing seed.
• Basil 'Magical Michael' is both edible and ornamental. Unusually uniform plants reach about 15 inches tall and 16-17 inches wide.
• Pumpkin 'Orange Smoothie'weighs just 5 to 8 pounds with a long strong handle. Smooth skin provides a great surface for painting Halloween faces. Grows on compact plants. Good garden project for kids.
• 'Cornell’s Bush Delicata' is a sweet, tender, non-stringy winter squash on a compact plant. Matures in 100 days from seed.

Test leftover garden seeds for germination. Place 10 seeds between moist paper towels. Keep seeds warm and moist. If less than 6 seeds germinate, purchase fresh seeds.

Save the slats from old vinyl plastic blinds. Cut the slats into eight-inch long pieces, cutting one end to a point. Use as plant labels in the garden.

Ornamental

Perk up your dreary winter garden. Plan to add one of the following colorful shrubs to your landscape.

• Red chokeberry (Aronia arbutiflolia 'Brilliantissima') grows 6–10 feet tall with brilliant red fruit and red fall color.
• Japanese kerria (Kerria japonica) grows 3–6 feet tall with yellow flowers and slender bright green stems.
• Cardinal red osier dogwood (Cornus sericea 'Cardinal') grows 5–8 feet tall with bright orange-red twigs.
• Golden twig dogwood (Cornus sericea ‘Flaviramea’) grows 5–8 feet tall with brilliant yellow winter twigs.

Brush snow from evergreens as soon as possible after a storm. Use a broom in a gentle, upward sweeping motion to remove snow.

Mix deicers with sand to increase their effectiveness and to reduce overall use. One pound of a deicer mixed with 50 pounds of sand makes an effective mixture.

Increase humidity around houseplants by grouping plants together, placing them on a pebble-water tray or running a humidifier.

Renew some of your houseplants by air layering. This is a process used to induce roots to form on a plant stem while it is still attached to the parent plant.