-Order Gardening Catalogs!  What great inspiration for those winter months!

-Plant your vegetable and annual plantings for spring.

-Inspect houseplants for insects.  Rinse plants in utility tubs or the shower to remove insects and dust – your plants will love you for it!  Don’t over water, and use warm water to water indoor plants.

-Plant Amaryllis and Paperwhite bulbs for winter flowers.

-Check stored summer bulbs for any rotting.

-Feed the birds and make sure they have water.

-Check tree trunks and base of plants for critter damages.

-Check newly planted plants for frost heaving.

-Water newly planted evergreens if a dry month.

-Put your cut Christmas tree on the patio for the winter and hand suet cakes and bird food on it like ornaments.

-Clean and sharpen tools.  Have the mower serviced / mower blade sharpened.

-Try vermicomposting indoors. 

-Schedule an appointment with a Natorp’s Landscape Designer to make plans for spring 2012 landscape makeover.

-Listen to Natorp’s own Ron Wilson “In the Garden” every Saturday from 6-9am on 55KRC The Talk Station, and 10-noon on 610 WTVN (Columbus / Central Ohio), and   watch for his gardening segments on Local 12 News (mornings).

TELL ME SOMETHING GOOD- If you’re like me, I just love reading trivia, old sayings, proverbs, ‘words or wisdom’ – you know, the kind of stuff that makes you stop and think for a minute or two!  And, there’s no time better than at the end of the year, or heading into the New Year!  So, here are a few goodies you can ‘ponder’ over: -End the year square with every man and woman.  –R. Thomas / There’s no limit to the amount of good people can do if they don’t care who gets the credit.  /   A green Christmas brings a white Easter – snow on Christmas night means a good hop crop – if it rains much during the 12 days after Christmas, it will be a wet year to come – so far as the sun shines on Christmas Day, so far will the snow fly in May.   –Old Farmer’s Almanac / Never insult an alligator until you’ve crossed the river. / If you lose the power to laugh, you lose the power to think. / You can’t steal second base and keep one foot on first.  / What happens to you on the inside becomes reality on the outside.  / God is in the details, so pay attention to the details. / Be happy while you’re living, for you’re dead a long time.  / First one downstairs gets to pick the cartoons.  / Never take a sleeping pill and laxative at the same time.  / The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.  / If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.  He should sweep so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.  -Martin Luther King, Jr.  / Eat only what is proper food, drink only that which does you good.  Spend only what you can afford, lend only what will be restored.  Then will you have no cause to say, “I was a fool on yesterday.” 

The Careful Builder   I saw them tearing a building down- a gang of men, in my hometown.  With a heave, and a ho, and a ‘yes, yes!’ yell, they swung a beam, and a sidewall fell.  I said to the foreman, “Are these men skilled?  Like the ones you’d use if you had to build?”  He laughed and said, “Oh, no! Indeed! The most common labor’s all I need.  Because I can destroy, in a day or two, what it takes a builder ten years to do.”  And I thought to myself, as I went my way, which of these roles am I willing to play?  Am I the one, who’s tearing down, as I carelessly make my way around?  Or am I the one who builds with care, so my family and my community is just a little better, because I was there?  -Author Unknown

[Epiphany - January 6^th is the traditional end of the Christmas holiday and is the date on which the tree and decorations are taken down.  To do so earlier was thought to bring bad luck for the rest of the year.]

 ‘Twas the night before Christmas and all thru the yard, the branches were bare – the ground frozen hard.  The ‘Knock Out’ roses were dormant, the others mulched all around, and the evergreens had been sprayed with ‘WiltStop’ to keep them winter safe and sound.

The perennials were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of ‘Espoma’s Garden Food’ danced in their heads.  The newly planted shrubs had been soaked by the hose

To settle their roots for a long winter’s doze.

When out on the drive there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.  Away to the window I flew like a flash, knocking over my herb planted ‘Earthbox’ as I threw up the sash.

I looked across the lawn where the new fallen snow, had covered the turf type tall fescues growing below.  When what to my wondering eyes should appear?  But a gardening truck in my driveway, filled with great gardening gear!

Saint Nick was the driver, the jolly old elf, and he winked as he said, “I’m a gardener myself.  I’ve brought garden tools, a moisture meter, a ‘Ross Root Feeder’, too, a compost bin, garden gloves and pruners just for you!

An ‘Adjust O Rake’, a shovel, and ‘TLC’ grass seed to sow, herb seeds for our friend Rita and all natural bug sprays for ole Buggy Joe.  Here’s ‘Bonide’s Weed Beater Ultra’ and ‘Tree and Shrub Insect Control’, some ‘Plant Tone’, some ‘Miracle Gro’, and ‘MoleScram’ to repel that mole.

Here’s ‘DeerScram’ and ‘Liquid Fence’ to keep those hungry deer at bay, some sulfur, soaps and oils, and ‘Espoma’ fertilizers for gardening the ‘all natural way’.  ‘Fertilome’s Crabgrass Preventer plus Lawn Food’ to feed the lawn and stop those pesky weed seeds, and here’s a really cool garden stool to help save your knees!

To make your gardening easy, ‘Sucker Stopper’ and ‘Over the Top’, ‘Roundup’, ‘Preen’, ‘Corn Gluten Meal’ – man these products really rock!  Here’s ‘Pine Soil Conditioner’, ‘Milorganite’ and composted manure, a green Christmas year-round, these garden gifts will ensure!”

Then Jolly Saint Nick, having emptied the load, started his truck and took to the road.  And I heard him exclaim through the motor’s loud hum, “Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a Green Thumb!”  -Author Unknown (Natorp revised 2011)