So, how many New Year’s resolutions have you broken already? Thought so. Well, here’s a bunch of replacements that might be easier to keep than those ones about the doughnuts and 5 a.m. workouts—and that’ll be beneficial to boot!
Resolve to feed the birds
Specifically, the birds that eat bad bugs. Suet feeders — small cages that hold “cakes” of high-energy food made of rendered fat, often enhanced with seeds, nuts, fruit and other treats — attract birds that are beneficial and fun to watch, such as wrens, chickadees, nuthatch and all kinds of cool-looking woodpeckers.
The yellow-bellied sapsucker, for instance (yes, that’s the name of a real bird and not just a funny thing to say) really does have a yellow belly. And the very easy-to-attract red-breasted woodpecker is an enormous and beautiful bird that’s almost a foot long (okay, 10 inches, but they look bigger than that). Heck, if you live near woods, you might even see the “pileated.” This Woody Woodpecker lookalike is our biggest woodpecker, at more than 16 inches in length!
Feed these great birds some suet now and they’ll take up residence near your home and hang around to eat your bad bugs in the spring.
Resolve to rescue a poinsettia or two
Do this and you’ll see what these plants are supposed to look like — which is not the way they’re bred and pruned to appear at Christmastime.
Keep the tropical plants safely inside for the winter, give them the best light you can and water them whenever the pot feels light. Removing the foil around the pot will help prevent you from accidentally drowning them.
In the spring, move them outside right around tomato-planting time and place them in a new pot twice as large as the old one, ideally using compost to fill the extra space in the bottom and sides. Give the plant good sun, water it if it doesn’t rain (always judge watering needs by the weight of the pot; heavy pots don’t need water; light ones do) and feed it gently once or twice over the growing season with compost, compost tea, worm castings or a nice liquid fish and seaweed mix.
By the end of the summer, it will have reverted to its normal form — an attractive plant with multiple branching centers. Bring it back inside in September, move it into darkness every evening for three months and the center leaves of all the sections will color up red, just like the single centers of the heavily pruned ones sold around the holidays.
Resolve to heed the American Academy of Pediatrics
Stop using toxic chemical pesticides in homes with children. This is an easy resolution to keep, as chemical sprays are never a good solution to pest problems — especially indoors, where you and your family are inhaling more of the stuff than will ever reach an insect.
Fleas, roaches and flies, for instance, are much better controlled by traps than sprays; ant colonies collapse when lured to non-toxic boric acid bait traps, and structural pests like termites are better controlled with outdoor bait stations and intelligent mulching than toxic trenches.
The next time you feel threatened by a pest, resolve to research the alternatives before you spray — and you can do that research right here! I just did a test of the WTOP “search” function, and the appropriate Garden Plot articles came up nice and high when I entered words such as “ants,” “fleas” and “termites.” Keep your search terms as simple as possible, just like me!
And if you can’t find what you’re looking for in a previous Plot, email me, Mike McGrath, and I will personally illuminate your alternatives.
Resolve to get your lawn off drugs!
Have you resolved to make healthy changes for the New Year, such as eating more whole grains and veggies and getting more exercise? How about adding a resolution that will make your entire family healthier? Maybe even the whole neighborhood, and definitely the Bay? All you have to do is take a “two-step program” to get off your “four-step program.”
It’s easy! If you have a cool season grass such as fescue or bluegrass, you should only feed it twice a year — once early in the spring and again late in the summer. Additional feedings are unnecessary, and may be detrimental to the lawn and/or illegal in your area. In between, always return your clippings to the turf. NEVER collect them — they provide a natural nitrogen-rich snack for your grass every time you mow.
But what about all those other “steps,” such as controlling weeds?
If you cut your grass correctly — that’s never mowing lower than three inches — the now-healthy turf will crowd out weeds. Lawn weeds are almost always caused by poor lawn care, not the unwanted plants taking advantage of the bare spots you caused.
Follow this simple plan and you’ll save time and money, and have a better-looking lawn.
The three wise men say it’s time to ditch that tree!
Tuesday marks the Epiphany — a celebration of the day when three supposedly smart guys (who apparently wouldn’t stop and ask for directions) finally arrived at the stable. For modern celebrants, this date also marks the traditional day to get the Christmas tree out of the house before there are more needles than fibers in your carpet. Here’s the plan:
- Use a turkey baster to empty the water holder.
- Bring a tarp or old blanket into the room, turn the tree on its side and carry the cut tree out on the tarp, which will catch most of those nettlesome needles.
- Prune off the branches and use them as mulch around the base of azaleas, rhododendrons and other acid-loving plants.
- Or stand the tree up in your backyard and cover it with suet feeders and big globs of peanut butter to create the most natural bird feeder imaginable.
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