January 2008

Plan to plant heirloom veggies this coming growing season. Heirloom plants are open pollinated. This means that their seed can be saved and will grow “true to type.” Plants grown from heirloom seed will look exactly like the parent plant. Heirloom vegetable varieties have better flavor and texture than current varieties, but lack disease resistance. Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa offers a large variety of heirloom vegetable seeds.

Choose disease resistant varieties of vegetables from garden catalogs. Disease resistance doesn’t mean the plant will not get a disease, but will survive the disease better than a plant without resistance. For example, some tomato varieties have a built-in resistance to Verticillium wilt and Fusarium wilt. This resistance is indicated in the catalog and on the seed packet with the initials VF.

Grow the 2008 Perennial Plant of the Year, Geranium ‘Rozanne’. This versatile perennial with 21/2 inch, violet blue, saucer-shaped flowers with white centers can be grown as a groundcover or in patio containers and hanging baskets. It will bloom from late spring to mid fall and does well in full sun to partial shade.

Grow an indoor garden in a bag. Fill a pint or quart size heavy-duty freezer bag with potting soil making sure to push the soil into the corners of the bag so it will set upright on a windowsill. Do not use sandwich bags, they will break. Fill the bag to within a couple of inches from the top. Sprinkle some easy to grow seeds like basil, chives or lettuce like ‘Black Seeded Simpson’ or ‘Red Sails ‘on top of the soil and lightly cover. Water lightly so the top three or four inches of the soil is moist and zip the bag shut. Place the bag in a sunny window. Check the bag in a week or so for green growth. When you see green shoots, open the bag and water when needed.

Follow these cold weather bird-feeding tips to attract birds to your yard.

• Place birdfeeders where you can see the birds.
• Mount birdfeeders on poles or wires at least five to six feet above the ground.
• Cover for the birds such as trees and shrubs should be within five feet of the feeder.
• Provide birds with high-energy suet feeders. Suet feeders can be made from beef suet or lard mixed with birdseed, oatmeal, and cornmeal.
• Provide a water source for birds in the winter. Keep the water from freezing by using a water heater available at many garden centers.

Watch for insects on your houseplants. Check your plants often because insect numbers can increase dramatically in a short period of time. Isolate infected plants from the rest of your collection. The following are some common houseplant insects.

• Whiteflies are tiny white insects with piercing-sucking mouthparts. Will cause yellowing and browning of leaves. Will fly around when plant is disturbed. Very difficult to control indoors. Best to throw plant away.
• Mealybugs are insects that look like little bits of cotton found in the leaf and stem joints and on the undersides of leaves.They excrete a sticky shiny substance called honeydew. This is often the first sign of the infestation you will notice. Remove by wiping with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol or hit with a hard stream of water.
• Scales are small insects covered with a waxy coating looking like small brown, round or oval bumps on plant stems. They also excrete honeydew and cause leaves to yellow and wilt. Try to remove by hand by scraping off with a fingernail file or prune out infected areas.