Anchorage Daily News

It is still warm after all these months. How could this be so?

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Jeff’s garden calendar (10/15/09)

Roses: Yes, you can store tea roses indoors, in the dark, if it is between 40 and 45 degrees. Water the plants once a month. Bring out in March.

Tomatoes and peppers: Yes, you can continue to grow them indoors, provided you have lights and remember that you are the pollinator.

Bulbs: Buy 'em and plant them if you can find them. They are a spring tonic, but you have to plant them in the fall.

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Denver? Snowed out. Chicago environs? Snow and temperatures in the teens. Clearly, this is not normal and we should not expect it to last.

Still, I appreciate the extra time. I am not ready, and I am betting you are not either.

For one thing, I need to make one more mower pass over the leaves on the lawns, but I have been waiting for it to get dry enough to make it a bit easier. This is the year I put down a pattern that should show up every time the snow melts. Circles? Diagonal? Mulch up those leaves.

I like to keep a few bags of the last lawn mowing to use in making a new compost pile. They are usually full of the perfect mixture of green, nitrogen filled grass and brown, carbon-laden leaves and if put into a pile that is at least 3 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet, will actually start composting before the hard frosts and snows hit. It's comforting to see the steam from the pile on cool mornings. Turn new piles after the heat dissipates.

Next, I have yet to go out to the finished compost pile and fill a bucket or two with the best I have for use this winter on house plants as a mulch and "fertilizer" and to use for potting in spring, specifically store purchases (like the lilies some box stores feature in way-too-early-February).

If you don't have a compost pile, pick up some from the nursery of your choice or at box stores so you have some around this winter.

Take advantage of having had only one frost. Hoses really should be drained and you can do it this weekend thanks to the weather. If you don't drain them, the freezing and thawing of the trapped water can cause them to crack. Don't want to drain them? Store them where they won't freeze. Come on. Get it done.

Of course, the ground can be worked, so there are always more bulbs to plant, and the weather is sure cooperating. And, if you can work the soil, you can plant trees, shrubs and perennials. Move some around your yard, even. It is warm enough. Buy whatever is still left on the nursery lots and plant it.

Now that the leaves are down and once the last mowing is over, stake the edges of the driveway so that they are noted during snow removal. No sense plowing up the lawn. You can use tomato stakes or more expensive reflector poles or buy a package of cheap, surveyor flags.

All of these require non-frozen ground, so stake now. The same is true if you want to keep traffic off a garden bed or direct winter feet down specific paths. Stake now before the ground freezes.

The bears are still out and about, so it is too early to fill bird feeders, but if they are clean there isn't anything wrong with putting them up this weekend. This way you can take out a ladder and not worry about freezing your hands to it. Placing feeders at different heights and using those that provide different foods is the way to increase the diversity of birds attracted. Trust me, it is much more fun putting up feeders when the weather is warm.

Finally, there is the application of Plantskydd, a product that gets universal endorsement (so far) for keeping moose at bay. It is nasty stuff to apply when the temperature is 34 degrees, as it has to be sprayed or painted on to plants. Do it now, provided you know you will have 24 hours without rain so that it sets. It should take you through the winter. By the same token, if you plan on putting up chicken wire "shark" cages, why do it when the weather turns? Get to it. Take advantage of what nature continues to deliver.

Jeff Lowenfels is a member of the Garden Writers Hall of Fame. You can reach him at teamingwithmicrobes.com or by calling 274-5297 during "The Garden Party" radio show from 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays on KBYR AM-700.

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