THE LAZY BERKSHIRE GARDENER: Week of January 26, 2023

Just in – snow! If you have evergreen branches weighed down by the heavy wet stuff, avoid both branch-breakages and getting dumped on by gently lifting them with a broom from underneath to knock off the snow. 

Inspect your indoor houseplants for any critters that have hatched, and spray with insecticidal soap at the first sign of a problem.  Also, visit them once a week to give the pot a 90-degree turn or they will grow continuously in one direction (and could tip over!)

While putting away holiday decorations a few weeks ago, I finally noticed a few neglected houseplants. I had been watering as needed but the rooms were a bit dark in December/January as I hustled around in the morning before work. I kept the soil moist on my overwintering geranium but then for a week or more the soil didn’t dry out. Hmmmm. Leaves started to look dry but the soil wasn’t dry. Time for a closer look.

Half of the plant had just curled up and died. One stem was still green. Then I saw them – hundreds of whiteflies in all stages of growth- eggs to nymphs to flies. Eww. Luckily this plant was already in its own pot separated from others. Whitefly will spread. If I caught this earlier, I would have given the plant and pot a full shower – then a follow-up bath of insecticidal soap – being careful to spray the soil surface and all the nooks and crannies of leaves, stems and ahem, underparts. 

But a shower wasn’t going to be enough to get rid of this army. I snipped off the green stem, gave it a shower and soap, and left it in a jar of water to possibly start rooting. I’d started a cutting of this plant last year, so I was willing to sacrifice the parent. And then off I went with the whole pot to my compost pile. Whitefly can become an overwhelming pest of greenhouses and houseplants because no natural predators are around to control the population.  I left the whitefly infested soil and plant tissue in my compost where the organisms and bacteria would take care of it.  The pot has been scrubbed and stored away until I have a new flowering charmer for it. If you don’t have access to a compost pile, you can bag up the soil and the whitefly will eventually die with no fresh plant material for food. 

After the houseplants are adequately inspected, I stare out my windows on these gray January days. We moved to a new property a couple of years ago and I’ve been watching to see how the plants and soil react to the changing seasons. The yard gently sloped to the road. It was mostly flat, slightly undulating lawn with some trees along the borders. Dull actually. I wanted to start some gardens and change the scenery but needed to know more about the soil. Was it heavy clay or sandy? Did water pool up anywhere? 

Waiting has benefits. I found areas that stayed damp and cool even in full sun. Iris could go there. I watched where water pooled up for days at a time. I planted willows, red-twig dogwood, aronia (chokeberry) and winterberry in those repeatedly wet spots that had regular exposure to sunlight. After the last week of heavy wintry mix, the same areas are wet but the new plants look fine.  Come June, it will have been a year of growing and I’ll see how they have fared. It’s exciting.

While gazing out your windows now, imagine a different scene. What would improve the view? Maybe something needs pruning or removal. Maybe you need more low perches for birds, or a windbreak to protect tender plants. Identify how much direct sunlight hits those planting areas and how much moisture stays in that soil. Ask other area gardeners what they grow. You can put your specific conditions in an online search, too! By knowing your conditions and potential plants, you save money and some potential anguish this spring. I, for one, cannot grow blueberries. Wish I could, but our soil and the time it takes to amend it for success make the task too hard for me. And as I’ve said, I prefer to be lazy. Besides, there are many local sources of very tasty blueberries.

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