A Holiday Reminder

This holiday season I purchase two poinsettia plants. I cannot believe how lovely they still are. With red being a very acceptable color for the month of February (Valentine's Day) they have looked very appropriate in the house. I am not sure how long they will look this good. I do keep the house very cool since I don't want enormous heating bills. I am sure this has helped the plants remain in good condition.

I do have a trick for watering houseplants. I would not use this on very tender plants, however. The trick is this: I water my houseplants with ice cubes. I take about a cup to two cups of ice cubes and scatter them on the soil surface of the pot the plant is in. The ice cubes melt slowly and the water actually moistens the soil thoroughly. Sometimes when you water plants with water, the water runs through so quickly, the soil doesn't get really moist.

Winter Garden

Winter has been unusually warm this year. The other day I was at the local garden center, Plant Depot, picking up a gift certificate for our school's silent auction. I saw their vegetable seedlings. I couldn't believe my eyes. They already had pole beans and zucchini plants! I had to buy them. This morning I planted them and now I will keep my fingers crossed for luck. If our warm weather continues, I will have the earliest harvest ever. Just in case, I planted some sugar snap peas, which thrive in colder weather.

Science Fair!

My friend's eighth grade child did a science fair project this year. My composter provided the worms! Her project was designed to determine if worms improve the quality of soil for plants to grow. She planted radish seeds in two containers. In one container she added worms while the other was the control. Here are the worms which were involved in the research project.