Your houseplants may be inside and warm, but don’t forget their need for light and humidity. Give each plant a quarter turn each week. If you use plant trays, clean those trays frequently to prevent bacteria and odors from growing in the water the trays collect.
Choose a relatively warm day this month to take down outdoor lights from trees and shrubs. By not waiting, you’ll avoid the need for extra care to prevent damage to swelling leaf and flower buds.
They need readily-available food; especially access to high energy food such as suet and seeds. Change water in bird baths frequently. Feeding the birds encourages them to stay around for spring when they’ll eat insects as well as remaining weed seeds.
The start of a new year is an excellent time to begin keeping a garden journal. Start with your memories of what worked best in last year’s gardens. Use those to guide your plans for this year, always remembering in no two years are the weather, insects or anything else ever the same.
Have you cleaned your tools yet? Save tools – and time – in the spring by cleaning and sharpening metal tools such as trowels, shovels and hoes on those gray days and long, dark evenings.
Finally, when choosing new plants remember most natives evolved along with deer, and such plants have natural defenses. These can take the form of nasty tasting chemicals in their leaves and bark — protecting themselves so you don’t have to.
