Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Check your nursery for stocking stuffers: kid’s gloves, watering cans, bonsai figurines, seeds and bulbs.

• Water living Christmas trees frequently while they are indoors, and put them outside after a week or ten days.

• Sasanqua camellias have lovely, delicate flowers that bloom through the winter months. Find a place for one of these hardy shrubs in the landscape.

• Primroses and pansies will add color to your flower beds and containers all winter.

Gardener’s Gift List

Cold winter days bring us indoors but many of us look forward to warmer days when we can spend time outdoors – in our gardens. Gardeners love to receive gifts that they can look forward to using out of doors. So here are some ideas for the gardeners in your life.

Good tools make a job much easier. Quality digging forks and spades are at the top of the wish list. The spade is essential for “double-digging” – adding organic materials to the soil to loosen the soil and add nutrients. The spading fork is easiest to use in light loamy or sandy soils, or in heavy soil that has been well-worked.

Hand tools are essential for all gardeners. Choose the best aluminum or steel-bladed trowel available. Flimsy, low-priced tools won’t last one single use in tough soil – they just bend out of shape. A hand trowel, a 3-pronged cultivator and a weeder make a nice “tool trio”. The Japanese Hori-Hori weeder knife is especially strong and versatile.

Looking toward pruning season, there are few tools more important to a gardener than a good pair of pruning shears. Felco® has long been the leader in pruning shears with a dozen different models to accommodate large hands, small hands, lefties, or equipped with a rotating handle to reduce fatigue. A Felco® pruning saw is a must-have for every orchardist. All Felco® tools come with a lifetime guarantee, and replacement blades, springs, etc. are available to keep them in tip-top condition.

Of course, a good pair of gloves is important to any gardener. The elbow-length, Thorngard gloves are great for pruning rosebushes and dealing with blackberries. The popular Nitrile Touch® gloves are loved by many gardeners. And there are even Kid’s Gloves, for the little gardener in the family.

The Garden Bench and Kneeler is an excellent gift for those who find kneeling somewhat difficult. The padded bench can be flipped over to become a kneeling pad with upright supports that serve as handles to get up and down. The cushioned surface is gentle on the knees while working in your garden. The kneeler folds up for easy storage.

We all enjoy time spent on the patio or deck surrounded by pots of flowers and maybe a water feature. Beautiful ceramic pots make nice gifts as do statuary of all kinds: birdbaths, angels, dragons, Buddhas, Madonnas, turtles and animals of all kinds.

Wind chimes are loved by many as they add soft music to the atmosphere when a gentle breeze blows.

Bird feeders are popular in the winter and spring as they attract and feed a variety of migrating birds. There are many kinds of feeders both for seed-eaters and for hummingbirds and orioles. Bird houses that are designed with the preferences of each type of bird in mind will give a home to the friends you enjoy the most. A birdbath looks lovely in any garden and is a must for the bird enthusiast.

Add a gardening calendar and you and your gardening friends can look forward to another great year of gardening pleasures. The Gardening by the Moon Calendar gives detailed timing for appropriate gardening activities, and the Old Farmer’s Almanac® is a helpful and fun book to have on hand.

We wish you all a very happy holiday season, and hope we can help you be successful gardeners in the year ahead!

• Living Christmas trees are now available. The slower growing spruces can be used for several Christmases before you need to plant them.

• Dogwood trees, flowering magnolias (or tulip trees), and Japanese maples are some of the balled and burlapped items you will find available now.

• Wind chimes make wonderful gifts that fill the air with music whenever the wind blows.

• Fruit trees can be planted now from containers while the soil is easy to dig.

• Dress up your interior landscape with some new houseplants for the holidays ahead.

Gardening Essentials

At heart, garden people are plant people. But dedicated gardeners also know the pleasure of quality garden tools. Cheap tools bend and break and can be the source of much frustration. A good garden tool is something to treasure.

The spade, the shovel and the spading fork are three primary tools with overlapping functions. The spade is essential for “double-digging”, for loosening the soil and for incorporating organic materials. The spading fork is easiest to use in light loamy or sandy soils, or in heavy soil that has been well-worked. The pointed-blade shovel can do both jobs and is generally the first choice of the beginning gardener. It serves the additional purpose of moving gravel and sand.

Hand tools are essential for all gardeners. Choose the best aluminum or steel-bladed trowel available. Flimsy, low-priced tools won’t last one single use in tough soil – they just bend out of shape. A hand trowel, a 3-pronged cultivator and a weeder make a nice “tool trio”. The Japanese Hori-Hori weeder knife is especially strong and versatile.

Another fine gift is a good pair of hand shears. Beginning gardeners usually choose the anvil type, in which the blade comes down on a soft steel “anvil.” This type will cut larger branches without springing the blade. The more experienced gardeners like the scissor or “bypass” shear which makes a clean cut every time. New shears have handles curved to fit your hand, which are more comfortable than the old designs and leave you with fewer blisters. Top quality Felco shears are made with replaceable blades and are built to last a lifetime.

Bonsai enthusiasts will enjoy a ceramic pot or specialty tool, or a new book with instructions and ideas for interesting forms to work with. There are books at the nursery on a dozen subjects from garden pools, landscaping and pruning to the newest “Western Garden Book” and “How to Grow More Vegetables.”

Bird feeders provide hours of entertainment for older folks and housebound people. Not only will they have the joy of watching wild birds, but you will be helping them with baby bird care and raising their young through the fledging stage. Hummingbird feeders attract those colorful birds to your patio year-round.

Bulbs can still be planted for spring flowers. Daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and crocus bring cheerful color to the garden after a long, cold winter. Holiday Amaryllis in gift boxes make nice gifts at a reasonable price.

Add a gardening calendar and you and your gardening friends can look forward to another great year of gardening pleasures. The “2010 Garden Calendar” from Ecology Action has a handy “things to do” list for each month. The “Gardening by the Moon” Calendar gives detailed timing for appropriate gardening activities, and the “Old Farmer’s Almanac” is a helpful and fun book to have on hand.

We wish you all a very happy holiday season, and hope we can help you be successful gardeners in the year ahead!

• Choose living Christmas trees now. Most will be able to be kept in their containers and used for one or two more years as a Christmas tree.

• Stop peach leaf curl by spraying soon with copper sulfate to help prevent this disfiguring disease from attacking your trees next spring.

• Clean up rose bushes by removing spent flowers and raking up old leaves, but wait until February for heavy pruning.

• Feed the birds this winter and enjoy the pleasure of their company. Bird feeders come in many styles and make wonderful gifts.

• Rhododendrons are hardy shrubs that are particularly beautiful in the spring when they bloom. Choose plants now when selection is the best.

Need Gifts for a Gardener?

When times get tough, many of us turn to practical gifts rather than luxury items. For the gardener on your list, there are many practical items that will enhance their gardening experience in the years to come.

Start with a nice pair of leather gardening gloves to prevent injury and chapped, rough skin; or flexible, rubberized cotton gloves that keep fingernails clean and hands dry. There are long-sleeved gauntlet gloves that protect from sharp thorns of roses or berry vines, and “Bionic” gloves made especially to offer people with arthritis a glove with comfort and flexibility.

Kneepads or a kneeler seat make weeding and planting less of a strain, without knee and back pain. The Garden Kneeler Seat can be used for kneeling in the garden and it has handles to help you get up and down. Or flip it over for a seat for resting or working in raised beds.

When it’s time to clean up the garden, there is no finer tool than a “Bos Bag”. This tough, self-standing, washable, tear resistant bag stands open for easy loading and folds flat for storage.

There are few tools more important to a gardener than a good pair of pruning shears. Felco has long been the leader in pruning shears with a dozen different models to accommodate large hands, small hands, lefties, or equipped with a rotating handle to reduce fatigue. Ratchet pruning shears may be just the ticket for light work or delicate hands.

And speaking of tools, the Hori-Hori Digging Tool is a traditional Japanese gardening tool that can be used for just about every kind of gardening, digging, cutting or weeding activity. The stainless steel knife blade is very sharp and concave shaped for scooping soil and other materials.

One of the most coveted garden tools is a good quality digging fork. Beautiful tools from England have a reputation for quality and durability, and are made to be used for a lifetime and passed on to the next generation.

Add a gardening calendar and you and your gardening friends can look forward to another great year of gardening pleasures. Ecology Action has produced a “2009 Garden Calendar” with a handy “things to do” list for each month. The “Gardening by the Moon” Calendar gives detailed timing for appropriate gardening activities, and the “Old Farmer’s Almanac” is a helpful and fun book to have on hand.

We wish you all a very happy holiday season, and hope we can help you be successful gardeners in the year ahead!