Thursday, January 10, 2008

Warm Day in January!

Hello again,

It is a sunny, warm day here in Southern Maine with the temperature at about 44 degrees at mid day.

Just a couple of suggestions for you gardeners for some useful gardening tasks on such a day. I was at home for a few minutes and I took the opportunity to take 2 of my large houseplants OUTDOORS for a short time but long enough to give them a very thorough watering and then merely drain the excess water in their pots and saucers outside.

I find it hard to thoroughly water such plants that are too big for my sink in the winter. These big guys can be taken to the bath tub for a thorough (2 to 3 gallon watering) and "drain out" but I often just try to let these plants get by a series of short quick waterings that merely leave the top 1/2 of the root system watered and the bottom 1/2 not. Thus, my big plants aren't always at their healthiest in the winter.

Another gardening opportunity on a dry January day with temps in the mid 40's or above is to apply Wilt Pruf to your broad leafed evergreens such as rhododendrons and azaleas IF you did not get to do this last fall. Wilt Pruf is an all natural product that we heartily recommend as a protective coating against the dry winter winds. Wilt Pruf helps prevent severe browning of leafs that can occur in early Spring.

Another great and quick thing to do on a day like this is to apply long lasting deer repellent to some of your tasty evergreens like arborvitae. Deep snow can make food hard to come by for those four legged deer but while I do not want them to starve we really don't want the deer to take the easy way out by munching on your arborvitae or yews or other tasty plants. We often recommend Liquid Fence an all natural deer repellent that if applied according to the easy directions will last for quite a few weeks. Liquid Fence can be found at Skillin's and can be described at http://www.liquidfence.com/.

If you have any comments or questions we would love to hear them! Simply post a comment by clicking on "comments" at the end of this posting OR drop us an email at info@skillins.com!

Mike Skillin
Skillin's Greenhouses
January 10, 2008

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Liquid fence is an excellent product! I live in a rural area with a large deer population and this stuff really works. And it's a natural product.

Anonymous said...

We just spilled some Liquid Fence in the Falmouth garden center today and whew! what a smell! I had forgotten how sharp the Liquid Fence smelled. It is also very thick; there is no way any deer would like this product. I can see why it works so well!