December Gardening Tips for Southern California
Winter is just around the corner. Short days and long nights mean temperatures, especially in our valleys, can dip below freezing. Take the necessary steps to protect plants from frost.
Keep Soil Moist: If you hear of a frost warning in your area, water your garden thoroughly before evening. The moisture from the soil will evaporate and warm the air around your plants.
Cover Your Garden: Plants heat up during the day. Trap this heat by covering plants with light materials such as paper, cloth or tarps prior to dusk. Stake up the frost shield if you are protecting delicate flowers and are worried the plants may be damaged by the weight of the covering. If not, drape the protection directly over the plants. Be sure to remove the covering the following morning to prevent plants from overheating during the day.
Protect Your Potted Plants: Potted plants do not have as deep a root system as plants in the garden. This means they are more susceptible to serious frost damage. Consider moving potted plants indoors or under patio covers on cloudless, cold evenings.
Keep Pesky Weeds From Overrunning Winter Gardens: Often, the first heavy winter rain will cause dormant weeds to grow. To help control weeds during winter months, turn over soil after each rain and cover the area with a layer of mulch. Just as in the year’s growing months, an inch or two of mulch will prevent weeds from sprouting.
Select a Living Christmas Tree That’s Right for Your Yard: Purchasing a living Christmas tree to plant after the holidays can be a wonderful tradition. Select a tree that fits your yard. Popular living Christmas trees are Norway Spruce, Alberta Spruce, Noble Fir and Scotch Pine. Decide on a location in your yard for the tree and then visit your local nursery to select the best Christmas tree for the site. Since the small Christmas tree you purchase for the holidays can grow considerably once planted, take into consideration tree and root growth and proximity to your home.
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May 25th, 2006 at 1:01 am
Agave, cactus, ephedra, nolina=bear grass, many types of yucca, our Lord's candle, chamise, manzanita, desert holly, red barberry, ceanothos, Texas ranger, hollyleaf cherry, catalina cherry, lemonade berry, California buckwheat, needlegrass, sage, coffeebery, columbine, dudleya, fescue, iris, snowberry, desert marigold, chocolate daisy, pink fairyduster, and many, many more!
Try the Arizona Native Plant Society, P. O. Box 41206, Sun Station, Tucson, AZ 85704
May 25th, 2006 at 1:07 am
Both will survive inside during winter. Both root easily (and will grow happily) in water (use clear container.)
A few other annuals that overwinter inside:
Geranium
Begonia
Hoya
Hibiscus
Dichondra
May 25th, 2006 at 1:11 am
recycled water? whats the water from a nuclear reactor. don't use that but if its from anything that would have nutriants it would be real advantages. as long as its not toxic waste are full of oil are something like that
May 25th, 2006 at 6:42 am
think outside the box remember all the mark brothers and most large outlet stores have there own garden shop — get a job there!!!
May 27th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
If you grow plants under different colors of cellophane it will affect their biomass. Since chlorophyll is the predominant pigment in most plants (all the green ones), the plants whose chlorophyll is most efficient will have more energy and grow faster. Chlorophyll absorbs red light most efficiently, and green light least efficiently, so a decent hypothesis to make would be that the plant under the red filter would grow the best, purple or orange might be second best, blue or yellow might be third, and green would be worst.
May 27th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
Oregano is such an easy herb! The benefit is that is can be used for such a wide variety of things, and it is a perennial so it will come back every year!
Other no brainers (and I know this from my own personal experience) is lemon verbena, thyme (lemon thyme as well) rosemary, mint, and lavender, and basil.
I have had some troubles with sage, but maybe it doesn't like Ohio weather, so the humid/hot might be good for it! Pretty much any herb is workable, just buy from a good source (preferably a farmer's market) and read any labels. I know having them indoors vs. outdoors makes a difference as well, so what I share is just from having outdoor herbs. (I just dug up the ground, plopped them in, and they lived!)
Good luck!
May 28th, 2006 at 3:57 am
Garden Web…. they've got forums for everything and the advice from their 'regular' folks is pretty darned good!…
http://www.gardenweb.com/
clik on 'gardenweb forums' to get started….
May 28th, 2006 at 7:31 am
if you want color, you will have to plant annuals, which are beautiful but must be replanted every year (that's why they are called annuals). If you want greenery, then perennials are your best best. Perennials are good in that they come back every year, but they aren't very colorful. It sounds like you live in a pretty mild climate, so you might have luck with the annuals, they may not ever die on you. I like snapdragons, peonies (very fragrant and much easier to grow than roses) and gardenias. For perennials, nothing beats the hardy mum.
May 28th, 2006 at 8:50 am
Better homes & garden has a free interactive landscape planing website. You'll have register to log on to their website (You don't need to buy anything or subscribe to their magazine).
"Plan-a-Garden lets you design anything from a patio-side container garden to your whole yard. Use your mouse to "drag-and-drop" more than 150 trees, shrubs, and flowers. Add dozens of structures like buildings, sheds, fences, decks — even a pond."
P.S. You may also have to close their magazine ad. by clicking on the x
http://www.bhg.com/bhg/story.jsp?storyid=/templatedata/bhg/story/data/planagardenhome_03022002.xml
Garden Styles & Plans from Better Homes & Garden:
http://www.bhg.com/gardening/plans/
http://www.bhg.com/gardening/plans/special-spots/foundation-garden-plan/
Plans from HGTV:
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_landscaping_design/
Lowe's Landscape & Garden planner
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=pg&p=Down_to_Earth/GardenPlanner/gardenplansplash.html&rn=none3D
Garden planner
http://www.gardencomposer.com/demo-planner-1.html (demo)
http://www.gardencomposer.com/demo-planner-15.html
BBC Gardening- Virtual Design
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/design/virtualgarden_index.shtml
DIY Planner
http://www.curbly.com/DIY-Maven/posts/1496-FREE-On-Line-Garden-Planner
Thought you'd like to see some landscaping design ideas from this Just Gardeners website:
http://justgardeners.com/hrsc/articles/art_landscape-design.html
This site contains a gallery of forum users's own pics too:
http://justgardeners.com/hrsc/ourgardens/ourgarden_pages/ourgardens_cornus.html
http://justgardeners.com/hrsc/ourgardens/ourgarden_pages/ourgardens_donnalockman.html
http://justgardeners.com/hrsc/ourgardens/ourgarden_pages/ourgardens_jill.html
Garden Web's Landscape-design forum:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/design/
Good luck!!! Hope this is helpful.