Hello my dear gardening friends,

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa was good to you. Hopefully he brought one of those two handled shovels from Canadian Tire (I think he cornered the market, for I haven’t been able to find one). I hope that if you have plans to party on New Year’s Eve, that you have a designated driver. Especially if your mode of transport is a snow mobile, for not only are you putting yourself at risk, if you should go through the ice, a member of the police rescue squad has to go beneath the ice to look for what is left of you! So, please do not put someone else‘s life in danger!!!!!

What does this all have to do with gardening? I just want to make sure that you will be here to pull weeds, mow lawns, etc. next year and all the years to come!!!

I was thinking about containers the other day, especially as I keep seeing planters full of soil and snow (I have to stop myself from going into the strangers garden and turning them upside down!).

This is a good time to think about an indoor container garden. Plants do indeed furnish a room, and the same considerations apply to the effective use of containers indoors as in the garden. Find containers that suit their surroundings and the plants that you have chosen for them; plant them imaginatively and group them together for impact. Foliage plants will form the backbone of most arrangements, similar to the trees and shrubs in your garden. Flowering plants are not long lasting indoors, but are always the centre of attraction while they are in bloom.

Decorative pots intended to be used outside can be used very happily indoors too. Baskets are good plant holders, if lined with dark plastic. Your indoor plants appreciate good light (although direct sunlight through glass is too powerful and will burn your plants) and a moist atmosphere. Stand pots on wet gravel and a good misting daily helps too.

Let us start out with a very simple indoor garden (a dark purple African violet and ferns are always delightful):< BR>
Materials: - A 12” terracotta seed tray (or other flat container)
- Crocks (broken plant pots work well)
- Houseplant compost – or any good potting soil
- Slow release plant food granules
- Pretty stones or glass pebbles

Plants to try:
- Maidenhair fern (adiantum)
- African violet (santapaulia)
- Button fern (Pellaea rotundifolia) or any other ferns that you can pick up cheaply at this time of year

1) Cover the drainage holes with the crocks
2) Arrange the plants before removing them from their pots. Plant the tallest one first, then add the others around it (you will have removed them from the pots they came in at this stage)
3) Fill in any gaps with compost, scatter a tablespoonful of plant food granules on the surface. Mulch between the plants with the pebbles or stones to help retain moisture. Water and place in a bright place away from direct sunshine. Spray regularly with water.
4) Terracotta transmits moisture and will mark any table-top if it is in direct contact with it. Cut sections from some of those Christmas wine bottle corks and glue them to the four corners of your containers, making sure that they are all the same length!!! A small plastic tray can be placed underneath it to catch any drips and moisture.

A Bottle Garden is always fun – especially for children. I taught gardening for several years to quite young children and was very surprised to see a little boy turn his bottle on its side – once his garden was finished it made perfect sense – often we can learn a great deal from our children/grandchildren.
Bottle gardens are great fun and if you choose a stoppered container you may be able to grow some of those plants that we cannot grow in our very dry homes. Do not worry too much about choosing the right plants, because when they outgrow their space you will be replacing them.

Materials:
- A large glass bottle (container) with a cork
- Fine gravel
- Paper or thin cardboard
- Charcoal
- Compost (potting soil)
- Knife, fork, spoon and cotton reel
- Bamboo canes
- Plants (any small foliage plants)

First, attach the “tools” to a length of bamboo cane – this will enable you to reach into the bottle of the glass jar or any other container that you are going to use.

1) Place some fine gravel in the bottom of the container. If the neck is narrow make a funnel from the paper or cardboard. Scatter the gravel evenly over the base.

2) Add a thin layer of charcoal. This will help to absorb impurities and reduce the risk of the bottle smelling if there should be too much moisture.

3) Spread layer of compost over the base and level it. Using your improvised trowel, make a hole for the plant.

4) Firm each plant in well. If you cannot reach with your hand, use a cotton reel pushed on to the end of a cane to tamp down the compost (potting soil).

5) Work around the whole bottle until it is fully planted. Then mist the plants. Aim the spray at the sides of the bottle if any soil is clinging to the glass and spoiling the effect. Leave the plants and soil moist, but not soaking wet.

6) If you are using a stoppered bottle you will have to balance the atmosphere over a week or two. You may need to keep inserting or removing the cork for a while.

7) Place the cork firmly in position and leave it for a day or two. Some misting of the glass, especially in the morning, is quite normal, but if it never clears there is too much moisture, so leave the cork out for a day and try again. If no condensation appears at all, it is probably too dry – mist again, then return the cork. It will take a little trial and error at first, but once the atmosphere is balanced you can leave the bottle for months without any attention at all. The worst problem you will have, is to prune or remove plants that become too large.

8) I have given you a couple of ideas, but you can put all your little odd plants together in one large container or even in one area, the impact of colour is so greatly improved and your plants prefer to be together for they create their own moisture, and look so much better than being spread around in odd spots.

9) Herbs are wonderful, scrounge some large cans from your favourite restaurant (they only throw them away) paint them bright colours and plant your favourite herbs. They grow well on any window sill – you can purchase seeds locally.

10) Try an indoor topiary – just drape ivy over a shape – I have two growing over bent bamboo arches, very simple and looking great.

11) Geraniums are wonderful in the house, those expensive water plants from your pond, will do very well in a glass container filled with gravel. Just put the gravel in the bottom of a container, place your water plant on top, add more gravel and fill with water. The glass will make your house feel lighter and brighter.

Many of you “go away” for the winter – do try and visit gardens whilst you are in a different climate to see what other people can and do grow. We were in Orangeville in Orange County, where they have some of America’s New Roses test beds in the public park. We drove past miles of “stubby things” in California, when we stopped to read the sign attached to a gate – it was the fields that the roses for the Rose Parade are grown in, they are harvested by combines, much like our corn. It was a pity that we missed those thousands of roses by a couple of days.

"A single rose can be my garden …A single friend my world." ~Leo Buscaglia

I wish you all a wonderful New Year. This is the year that everyone’s garden will be its most beautiful, soft gentle rain at the right time, sufficient sunshine (maybe a little manure from heaven in the evenings) and to all the brides this year, wonderful flowers for your bouquets.

If you still owe someone a gift, a note offering gardening help is always appreciated, especially raking for someone who can no longer do it themselves.

Good gardening to us all – hats, warm gloves, sunscreen, hats, scarves and do not forget that sunscreen – especially if you are out snow mobiling. Happy, Happy 2005

Lovingly, Beryl