Homemade Hand Sanitizer

Reuse hand dispenser by filing with aloe vera gel and rubbing alcohol. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Homemade Hand Sanitizer

With hand sanitizers selling out in major US cities due to Coronavirus concerns, here is how you can make a homemade hand sanitizer you can have available all year.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise frequent hand-washing with either soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer will guard against the virus.

"Our hands and fingertips carry the infection, so if we use hand sanitizer that will pretty much control the disease," Dr. Sanjay Maggirwar, a professor of microbiology at George Washington University, told CBS MoneyWatch.

Homemade Hand Sanitizer Recipe via CBS News March 6, 2020

2/3 cup 60% or higher rubbing alcohol

1/3 cup aloe vera gel

Optional: 8-10 drops essential oil for scent only to cover alcohol smell.

How to Use Homemade Hand Sanitizer

Wash out a liquid soap or hand sanitizer bottle.

Fill with your homemade hand sanitizer.

Squirt on hands to clean.

I keep aloe vera gel in my gardening bucket for minor stings and scratches. I just used my aloe vera after cleaning out my herb garden.

I also keep 70% rubbing alcohol to sanitize my beekeeping tools.

Wash Your Hands Well

Washing your hands with soap, cleaning under nails and between fingers for 20 seconds will also work.

If you are a gardener, you already know how well to clean hands after a long day in the garden!

Charlotte

Clam Shell Seed Starting

Fruit clam shells make tiny greenhouses for easy seed starting. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Clam Shell Seed Starting

It’s getting closer to the time to start planting seeds indoors where I live in USDA Hardiness zone 5b. Most seeds, especially vegetable seeds, take about 6 weeks to be strong enough for transplanting. Our last frost day is around May 10 so I back date how long seeds take to be established before transplanting to determine when to start seeds. One of the best items we can all repurpose to grow seedlings are clear fruit clam shells. You can also use cleaned baked chicken, cupcake and cake plastic containers.

Fruit clam shells work well for me because they are small enough for six to fit on cookie sheets so I can easily move them around the house to catch sunlight. I place them on a towel on the cookie sheet so the soil can stay moist without getting wet. Clam shells have openings at the bottom.

Over the years, peat pots have been a favorite pot of choice for seed planting. Those are a good choice as well because they can feature one seed per pot and easily be transplanted. Plants grown in clam shells can also be transplanted into peat pots.

Traditional peat pots used for vegetable seed starting. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I use a different option. After getting plants started in the clam shells, I transplant them into pots made out of cardboard and newspaper. Once the weather is right, I can easily plop these into the ground without moving the plant around any more. This will ensure the roots can then grow into the surrounding soil as the thin cardboard disintegrates.

Cherry tomato seedlings transplanted into cardboard newspaper pots. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The inside of toilet paper rolls make excellent planters for individual plants. Those can also be planted outside when the temperatures are right.

It’s starting to feel like spring!

Charlotte

March Gardening Tips

Gluing the bottom of a gourd birdhouse before hanging it outside. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

March Gardening Chores

March is the beginning of spring and daffodil days in my garden, so many daffodils that one of my neighbors used to refer to my garden as “Daffodilland.” The weather can also be a little challenging in USDA Hardiness zone 5b so March can be a hit and miss month in terms of getting a lot done.

This March 2020 started out mild enough so I was able to get my main chore done, getting my birdhouses repaired and hanging in my garden. Attracting birds is a great way to manage unwanted bugs without using insecticides and pesticides.

The birdhouses also serve as homes for paper wasps, a wonderful pollinator we often find on porches and other unwanted areas. By giving them an alternative home, they can still pollinate our gardens without getting in the way.

My gourds painted like apples are back on my apple trees. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

2.     Prune and fertilize roses. On the first warm day, I remove all dead branches so the new growth will have room. I also add coffee grounds, banana peels, Epsom salts and crushed egg shells mixed into the soil around the base of the plants. Gently, you don’t want to tear up the roots. Also a good time to mulch.

3.     Plant onion sets around roses to keep bugs at bay. Three for miniature roses, 5-6 for the larger roses.

4. Prune fruit trees. Nothing elaborate, I make sure the branches don’t cross and are open in the center. Also mulch. Make a tire around the base leaving the space up at the tree trunk open.

5.     My hellebores and ‘Autumn Joy’ Sedum get the old greenery cut off so any new growth gets to shine. The Sedum starts look like tiny green roses close to the ground.

6.     Mulch. My over-wintering mulch pile is ready to spread over new areas that need cover for the season and areas that lost cover over winter. Good time to load up the wheelbarrow and keep a supply at hand.

7.     If you didn’t get your lettuce and spinach out in February, get them planted this month. I started a crop in my pot garden mid-February.

8.     March and St. Patrick’s Day is also the time to plant potatoes, radishes and carrots.

9.     The last frost day for this zone is Mother’s Day in May so it’s a little too early to get much else planted and much too early to move tropical plants outside, even if you are ready to toss them out on their aggravating dropping leaves by now. Give them a little rainwater and that will help tide them over for another month or so.

First crocus of the season are in bloom March 1! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

10.  Also check inside plants for bugs. Look under leaves and if you see white bugs, clean off with a damp cloth wet with water and dishwashing liquid. Spray soil with a few drops of dishwashing liquid in water in a spray bottle to get rid of eggs. Start watering with ¼ strength fertilizer since days are getting longer.

11. Take time to enjoy the sunshine and look for spring-blooming plants!

 Charlotte

Homemade Rose Food

If you don’t have coffee grounds, save tea bags to mix with egg shells and banana peels. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Homemade Rose Food

There’s another snow storm in the forecast for mid-Missouri but I know spring is close, I am encouraged - no, propelled to start making my homemade rose food.

Frankly I can’t tell you where I found this homemade plant food recipe. I have been making it for a couple of decades now from dried egg shells, banana peels, coffee grounds and Epsom salt.

The hardest part is saving the items so they can dry and then get mixed.

To easy dry the banana peels, egg shells and tea bags, i have a basket that sits on top of my refrigerator lined with a paper towel over those silica pouches that get included in show boxes and other shipped items.

The little drying basket I keep on top of refrigerator to dry egg shells and banana peels. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

What I do know is that this homemade rose food works. When I worked in a government office, I used to take fresh flowers in for our coffee break room, two bouquets of flowers every week or so. When my tea roses were blooming, I would take in those little bouquets and get accused of buying the flowers, or having a secret admirer who gave them to me. Grew them myself, I would say ,but people would still raise eyebrows.

Missouri is not the best place to grow roses but our clay soil is good for roses. The hot temperatures strain roses later in the season but we can grow roses through a good long spring. As long as the soil is well fed, the roses will follow.

To start, dry banana peels. I keep a basket on top of my refrigerator lined with a paper towel. I find it easier to cut up the banana peels after they are dry but I have cut them up both fresh, and dry.

Banana peels are easier to cut up after they are dry. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I also use the basket over the refrigerator to dry out egg shells.

Since I don’t drink coffee, I collect it from our bee club meetings and a local coffee house. I also save tea bags.

I also dry out the coffee on a newspaper spread onto a bread tray in my garage. Once dry, I store the dry coffee in a reused plastic container I use later to mix all ingredients.

Dry coffee grounds are better to mix up with other ingredients. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I also keep a supply of Epsom salts handy for garden use. If I happen to run out of bath salts, I also have this as a back up supply.

One of my garden staples, epson salts, good for soil as well as soothing baths. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Once it’s time to start using, I mix banana peels and coffee in equal parts. I add crushed egg shells and Epsom salts half the amount of the banana peels. Mix.

To use, I make a small trench around the drip line of the roses and sprinkle the mixture in.

How well does it work?

Here’s an old fashioned climbing rose that gets the homemade rose food every year.

And here is an old climbing rose, rejuvenated last year with my homemade rose food. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

One of the best things about this mixture is that I am reusing banana peels, egg shells and coffee grounds and making a plant food that has proven itself.

Also helps to have an extra source of Epsom salts for my tired muscles!

Charlotte

Cedar Arbor Branches

Adding cedar branches gives plants more surface to climb. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Cedar Arbor Branches

Buying, and making, a garden arbor is more than just two elliptical shapes held together. The garden arbor also needs more intricate supports for the plants that you plan to grow over it.

If the garden arbor is metal, that can be hard to add. Unless you have native cedar trees, which I have in abundance.

I like to remove the bottom cedar branches so i can walk by them without having to wrestle my way around them, giving me a good source of garden arbor supports.Now I collect cut cedar branches to add structure to my garden arbors so the climbing plants have an easier way to grow.

Climbing roses appreciate having cedar branches to grow on. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

This garden arbor stands between two windows. I have climbing rose starts given to me making their way up the sides so the roses will be visible at the top from the inside, where i have chairs facing out into the garden. On either side of the arbor, away from the house, are old-fashioned lilacs that make their presence known when they are in bloom. Great excuse to open all of the windows!

Anchoring either side of the arbor and the seat are boxwoods to give the space a little privacy.

Adding the cedar branches is easy, especially the ones with a little curve.

Use the cedar branch curve to secure the branch in between the metal rungs. It may take a little trial and error. I will clip off the branch sticking up on the right and will secure the curved branch on the left to give roses more places to grow overhead.

I’m just starting to add cedar branches to this new arbor. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I am adding cedar branches to another new metal arbor. This is replacing an older one that got bent in a wind storm.

I start by adding vertical cedar branches up each side. The straight cedar branches provide the metal arbor additional support and are secured to the metal arbor with metal twist ties. As i find other cedar branches, i can now easily weave them into the metal.

New arbor marking a path is getting cedar branches added. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Most garden arbors need more vertical supports for climbing plants to spread the greenery. Here’s a garden arbor I made completely out of cedar branches to give my raspberries support. I weave the raspberry plant tips through the top, making a low shade arbor.

I plant shade-loving herbs underneath.

This raspberry arbor is all cedar branches! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Cut down your cedar branches right before you use them. The branches will be easy to fit into spots where you have to bend them into a particular space.

i have also used cedar branches that have weathered after a while but they are a bit more challenging to bend into a shape.

Charlotte

Winter Nests

Tree tops in winter reveal a variety of nests. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Winter Nests

The early months of the year tend to be gray and overcast where I live. When it rains for several days, it’s even more of a spirit damper so over the years, I have developed things i look for as we slowly move towards spring.

One of the signs I try to spot are nests. With all of the leaves off trees and bushes, nests become clearly apparent. I find tiny nests in shrubs that held Red Cardinal eggs. Sometimes I clean nests out of some of my bird feeders.

And on my walks, I look for nests at tree tops.

I don’t have to look up the source of those tree top nests, they belong to the very active community of gray squirrels in my garden.

In one of my older gardening books I was reading, there was a time when people put up squirrel boxes for squirrel nesting sites. Without those boxes, squirrels build nests in trees or use dead tree trunks.

I do leave old trees to give woodpeckers and squirrels potential homes but they seem to do a pretty good job themselves.

Nests in trees full of leaves are squirrel nests. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Be careful getting too close. I once tried to look at the detailed leaf design of a squirrel nest and found myself staring into the faces of 3 baby squirrels!

Charlotte

New Bluebird Birdhouse

Resin-based bluebird birdhouse with an easy to clean bottom stopper. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

New Bluebird Birdhouse

It hasn’t exactly been high on my priority list but every year about this time of year I look for well built, easy to clean bluebird houses.

As Bluebird Gardens, we often see Eastern Bluebirds, especially during winter and early spring, visiting the garden in flocks. I often spot them eating Smooth Sumac seeds or drinking water out of the little water fall off my front porch.

A flock of Eastern Bluebirds one winter on my porch. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Eastern Bluebird numbers used to be on the decline but a concerted effort to put up houses for them has turned the tide on their numbers nationwide.

I like having birdhouses in my garden to keep unwanted bugs under control. Sixty percent of all birds depend on insects for food. Bluebirds eat grasshoppers, all types of flying insects, crickets, spiders, beetles and caterpillars during the spring and summer. When overwintering in Missouri, bluebirds form small flocks and feed primarily on berries and other available fruits. During warm winter days, they will eat any insects that become active.

I found a charming bluebird birdhouse several years ago at Goodwill made out of a gourd for $1. The painted gourd ones retail for $35 in the Midwest.

I spent an hour giving the gourd bluebird a new beak and fixing the damage to one side with paint. A clear coat and the bluebird gourd is now cradled in the middle of a wreath on my front porch. And yes, I do get visitors all summer checking out the birdhouse. And some nesting in the wreath, see the little nest in front of the bluebird gourd?

The salvaged bluebird gourd birdhouse keeping a wreath company. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Gourd birdhouses are charming but not very hardy. I take them down in fall, store them in my bee shed and put them back out in spring. Well, except for the bluebird one.

I also have bluebird houses around my garden, some which entertain bluebird pairs raising young a couple of times a year.

To get ready for this year’s bluebird-raising season, I found this new, resin-based bluebird birdhouse on an online shopping channel. They were featuring garden items and these were on clearance.

After showing how easy they can be cleaned, I ordered one knowing that the last purchase from China for a customer had not turned out well.

I was in luck. This little bluebird birdhouse came in undamaged and ready for use.

I do read instructions, even if I think i know how to use something. These instructions were pretty clear.

Now can instructions get any easier? (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The bluebird birdhouse is now spending the rest of February sitting on my bookcase by my front door.

In addition to being a favorite Bluebird Gardens tenant, Eastern Bluebirds are Missouri’s state bird.

The bluebird birdhouse will go outside the next sunny day since bluebirds can fledge three families a year and usually set up shop late winter.

The bluebird birdhouse has joined my other collection of garden friends on a book case. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I’m a little worried, though. That bluebird birdhouse looks awfully cute on my book case….

Charlotte

Early Spring Signs

King Alfred daffodils are showing buds February 2, 2020. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Early Signs of 2020 Spring

The groundhog is predicting an early spring this year, something I would agree with since my mid-Missouri hillside garden has been showing early spring signs for awhile. Quite awhile!

Scientists have forecasted that with our rapidly changing climate, moving at 150-year increments versus 10 million years - our weather and growing patterns will continue to change. I can remember a time when our soil was frozen for several months. I’m not sure my soil this year has ever been cold enough to freeze - i see too many signs of plants still growing.

One amazing sight is of a plant I love because it reminds me of the softness of my cats ears. Lamb’s Ears are a ground cover with deliciously delicate, ever so soft leaves that usually die back. I haven’t seen them die back yet this year. If anything, they are growing.

Lambs Ears spreading through one of my flower beds. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

In previous winters, Lamb’s Ears would hang on through Christmas and disappear under leaves once the ground froze. As I said earlier, I don’t think our soil in mid-Missouri has frozen yet this winter.

I was wondering how my tulips would take not getting their usual 8-12 weeks of cold exposure before they start growing. We think of tulips as being from Holland but they are originally from very cold Northern Hemisphere Russia, where they are used to cold winters to get them ready for spring blooming.

Tulips are also popping up, a good month and a half early. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Here’s another amazing sight, strawberry plants peeking out through their blanket of straw and mulch.

This is a new strawberry patch I started two years ago as part of my “Berry Patch.” I’m mixing flowers among raspberries, blueberries, figs and strawberries as well as mums to keep unwelcome bugs away. This growing bed has a layer of tree limbs in the bottom to retain moisture.

Who sees strawberry leaves this early in the year! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Not everything is out of sinc. I did find several of my Christmas or Lenten roses getting ready to bloom. They usually are the first flowers to appear early in the year, keeping their flowers until late April.

Lenten Roses usually do bloom this time of year. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I spent two lovely days in the 70s puttering in my garden early February. As much as I enjoyed the sunshine, and was reminded of how sore I can get out in the garden, there was no point in getting concerned. As soon as I was wondering how these plants would fare, and when I would get a break, a winter storm moved in covering the ground in large, beautiful snowflakes.

Another snowstorm blanketing Bluebird Gardens. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Ok, back to writing my books and finishing projects in front of a fire. Thatt’s more like it for early mid-Missouri February!

Charlotte

February Gardening Chores

Use downed trees as flower borders; as they break down, they will improve soil. (Photo by
Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

February Gardening Chores

We’re in the throes of another warm spell, temperatures nudging 60F and encouraging my fruit trees, and bees, to be out in the garden early. Almost two months early. Some of our big box stores are also setting up for spring fever early, two of them already have seed offerings and seed starting kits for sale.

I live in USDA Hardiness Zone 5b-6A, inching more towards 6A based on this winter.. The following are my February gardening chores:

• Locate downed tree trunks and use them to border flower beds. As the tree trunks decompose, they will improve the soil.

• Pressure is on so if you haven’t made a dent in your reading pile, get a start, spring is only two months away. With our rapidly changing and more erratic climate patterns, the forecast is for an earlier spring.

•  If you haven’t ordered your favorite gardening catalogs, get them ordered. Look for catalogs with detailed plant descriptions and good photographs so you can use them for reference.  Missouri Wildflowers Catalog has lovely pictures, even old catalogs are still good references. www.mowildflowers.net. For heirloom seeds, try Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds at www.rareseeds.com, both are Missouri nurseries.

• Review last year’s garden diary entries. If you’ve missed a few entries, add them now. Underline items you wanted to get done this year. I make a list, then decide which projects I want to tackle. I also carry over the ones I didn’t get to last year, or drop them off the master list. This is a good time to dream.

• Focus on adding native plants. Once established, they will be low care and tend to require less water than other plants and they will feed the native pollinators. They are connected. Check out George O. White State Forest Nursery, they may still have some seedlings left. Order even if they say sold out, you may still get the seedlings if the previous person didn’t pay for their order.

• Read. I keep a pile of gardening books from our local library’s semi-annual book sale just for snowy, cold winter days.

• On warm days, remember to water mums planted this past year. New mums need a gallon a month to keep their roots moist their first year. Once established, mums will become perennials and deter bugs from around where they are planted.

• Pile mulch and leaves on garden beds if they’ve been blown off by winter winds.

• Check inside plants for any hitchhiking bugs and remove. Make sure they are getting their sunlight needs met. If not, move them. Water with diluted fertilizer. Prune as necessary.

• Drop your garden pruners and other garden tools off to get sharpened, this is a slow time of year and this will give you a head start on the season.

• When feeding birds, add a little sand in the bird feeder mix. Birds need sand to help them digest seeds. Also ensure they have an available water source. Feed suet on cold days.

• If you have fish in an outside pond, make sure it has a hole in the ice so fish will get oxygen.

Signs of spring around the corner, daffodil bulbs popping up! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

There are signs of spring in my garden, daffodil bulbs are popping up. Only 50 days until spring!

Charlotte

Cardboard Flower Bed

Cardboard Flower Bed

Who would have ever guessed our love affair with home delivery would morph into a gardening technique. That’s what is happening, though with the proliferance of cardboard and the desire, at least on my part, to have yet another flower bed on my limestone hillside.

Cardboard has been an excellent gardening tool for a number of years. I have used cardboard in the bottom of newly-dug holes to keep seedlings watered. I have also mulched established plants first with cardboard, then covered them in seasoned wooden chips.

Now cardboard in my garden has graduated into getting new full-fledged flower beds ready for planting.

It doesn’t have to be large pieces, any size cardboard box will do.

Saving a small stash of cardboard to move it out to my garden. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

When gardening on a hillside, the critical part is having something to place on the cardboard so that it doesn’t blow away.

When I think I have enough cardboard to cover a garden area, I either collect bags of shredded leaves or already have shredded leaves in the area. That way I can cover the cardboard with the shredded leaves so they hold down the cardboard.

Leaves also make good choices to keep cardboard from blowing away. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

If I can time the cardboard addition to weather, even better. A good rain will help settle the cardboard into the hillside and help it smother what is underneath.

If something is strong enough to grow through cardboard, I tend to leave it.

It can take 6 weeks to 3 months to kill off what was originally growing in an area now covered in cardboard.

Once the area is cleared and is covered in shredded leaves and wood chips, it should be ready for planting in the next growing season.

Now I’m working on cardboard for the next flower garden. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I like the idea of repurposing cardboard in my garden. The cardboard also provides a nice layer that helps maintain moisture in the soil.

Coming up next, planting native tree seedlings from George O. White Nursery, coming in around April.

Charlotte

Winter Watering Holes

My favorite winter watering hole for my birds, a tiny waterfall. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Winter Watering Holes

We think of garden visitors like butterflies and birds enjoying bird baths in the summer but they also need a good source of water in the winter when it’s not so easy. After several options, I finally found the easiest, and most reliable way to offer water to my birds and bees over winter: a small waterfall. The continuously moving water provides a constant water source when other options are either frozen or no longer available.

For many years, I would try pouring hot water into concrete bird baths to break up the ice. Depending on the outside temperatures, the water would just freeze.

One of the bird baths near a bird feeder covered in ice. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I do have a heated bird bath. The challenge with this option is having a deck or pole where it can be installed, as well as nearby electricity.

I had this plugged in and on my porch for several days. It needs to be daily checked and kept filled, not to mention finding a good way to mount it.

Heated birdbaths need a safe mounting pole and nearby electricity. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

When I found this portable water fall on sale, I was not thinking about this being a watering hole for birds and other creatures. I installed it next to my front porch and added local rocks to help it blend into the nearby limestone.

I was thinking this would attract frogs I could enjoy watching. Instead, birds, bees and butterflies have made this a favorite watering spot all year around.

This waterfall is an easy way to provide water in winter. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

What I like about a portable water fall for winter water is that the constant movement keeps the water from freezing. The water fall holds the water that gets circulated and is easily refilled periodically.

if you want to manage the water fall, you can place it on a timer so that it doesn’t run all of the time. Mine shuts off in the evening during summer and kicks back on early morning. During winter, I keep it running all night so that the water doesn’t freeze.

Bluebirds making a winter stop at my porch water fall for a drink. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The morning I looked out my front door to see a whole flock of Eastern Bluebirds getting a drink out of the water fall I knew this was the solution for me. And my birds.
For the ease of providing water all year, this has turned out to be the best option.

You will find these portable water falls at big box home and garden centers usually spring through summer. I have seen them on sale in the fall, usually when inventory is down to only one or two units.

Charlotte

How to Compost

Composting can be done is something as simple as a coffee can. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

How to Compost

All of that food, an estimated 40% of what we buy and don’t eat, can be put to very good use. It can feed the microbes, mushrooms, mycelium and plants that in turn, feed us. Yes, it’s a microbes eat mushrooms kind of world.

Now when I talk about composting in some of my lectures, some people wrinkle up their noses and tell me they don’t compost because it smells. And it’s messy. And it takes up a lot of space. And it’s complicated, and…

I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be any of those things. The principles are simple and, with a little change in your habits, you too can easily start to compost.

Composting areas do not have to be ugly, his charming birdhouse surrounds one of my composting stations. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

And, one more usual objection, composting does not need to be ugly, composters can easily be incorporated into a garden landscape. Do you see any composters?

Okay, ready?

Start Collecting Kitchen Scraps

Probably the smelly messy part of composting is the accumulation of kitchen scraps. This is how I started composting several decades ago, and there is no mess or smell.

Know that little pull out drawer at the bottom of your refrigerator freezer? Bet you didn’t know that was a composting bin, did you.

Start composting collecting kitchen scraps in a plastic bag stored in your freezer. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Get a sturdy bag; I used to use a plastic bag. Place it in the bottom rung of your freezer. Toss in kitchen scraps when you have some.

Once the bag is full of frozen kitchen scraps except for meat, take it outside and bury it in a hole in your garden. Shrubs, trees and any established plants will appreciate the extra dinner. Or two.

Repurposed coffee cans make good small composters inside and outside refrigerators. Make sure to mark them. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

If you don’t like the plastic bag idea, use a repurposed plastic coffee can. The coffee cans work well because most have a handle on the side so you can easily carry it from one spot to the next.

We use this one in the photo at our local bee club meetings to collect coffee grounds, tea bags and other food scraps. Coffee filters and tea bags can be composted, as can most paper towels and paper napkins.

A composting bucket that has filters in the lid. This one sometimes is in the refrigerator, other times on my kitchen counter. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

You can also buy composting buckets that include filters in the lid. I don’t use the filters because they are not needed when the bucket is in the refrigerator. These buckets are designed to sit on a kitchen counter for easy access. The filters keep any odors from escaping.

Composting Areas

Once you get into the habit of collecting kitchen scraps, you can graduate to building a spot outside where you dump it with dried grass clippings and leaves. Most people use a garden corner in the back.

You can make a barrel out of chicken wire; repurpose a plastic barrel by making holes in the bottom so it can drain, or buy a sealed composter like the ones i have.

To make access easier, I now have two composting stations, one on either side of my house, close to where my flower beds are located. Both have two composters each so that i can let one “cook” while I am filling up the other one.

Here is how one of my composting stations is set up:

Coffee cans on left collect rainwater; the yellow bucket is used to pick up leaves. The two composters are easy to rotate to add air. The barrel on the back also helps collect material for the composters, and I use it to remove compost to spread in gardens. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

There are many composters currently on the market. I prefer sealed ones because they keep uninvited visitors from rummaging through the food scraps and making a mess. Not many garden centers where i live carry them so check online.

Here is the back of my birdhouse composting station:

Repurposed coffee can, left, collects rain water. I fill up one composter, then allow it to work its magic while I work on the second one. Autumn clematis covers the birdhouse mid-summer. Don’t ask me about the red garden hose, guess it’s getting stored there for winter. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

My first composter, the black one on the right, is now more than 40 years old and is still working well. These barrel composters also collect liquid that can be removed through a capped opening at the bottom. The challenge with these is that, once full, they can be hard to turn. For me.

This is my newest composter, with two separate chambers so I can fill one up and let it decompose while I work on the second one.

I like the composters with side handles, they are easier to turn when full.

Don’t stick your nose inside, of course it’s going to smell, the stuff is decomposing! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

What to Compost

In general, you need half green and half brown with a dose of water to keep the microbes working.

Green are the things that come out of your kitchen:

Kitchen scraps

Coffee grounds and tea bags (coffee filters and tea bags, too)

Fresh leaves, plant trimmings, whatever green you pull out of your garden and don’t want growing

Grass clippings

Manure

Brown are the things that are already dead and decomposing:

Dead leaves and weeds

Egg shells

Wood ash from your fireplace

Wood chips

Sawdust

Straw

You can compost all year. It will take longer for these items to interact and break down so you will more quickly make compost in summer than you do in winter.

How do you know when it’s done?

It will be a black and crumbly and look very much like soil you buy at a home and garden center.

Almost finished compost, this is still a bit wet and still has some pieces to decompose but there is no smell. Almost ready to add to my flower beds! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

To use, spread lightly over existing flower beds, around trees and shrubs. I try to time it before a rain so that the water helps the compost filter down into the soil and roots.

Once you start seeing the difference compost makes in your garden I will bet you will be hooked. It is such an easy thing to do and has huge implications. Soil is what keeps our plants and food sources healthy and growing so why not invest a little time to give back?

Charlotte

Cracked Corn De-Icer

Cracked corn nicely melts ice without damaging nearby soil. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Cracked Corn for Ice

There’s an often-repeated joke when the forecast in Missouri calls for snow. Get thee to the grocery store for bread and milk, a reference to how some areas of the state get cleared out of the basics as part of their winter storm preparations.

Now I can remember the days when we had winter storms that closed down schools and whole parts of the state for days. And one winter, we were ice-covered for 6 weeks with Meals on Wheels drivers delivering food wearing golf shoes.

I confess, when the forecast calls for ice, I make the prerequisite grocery store stop and then head out to our local farmer’s exchange for a supply of cracked corn. Cracked corn makes a great de-icer, something I need living on a hillside where my driveway not only dips but curves. I would prefer not to have my car ending up sliding down the hill, which it has attempted a couple of times.

My garden paths also can be dangerous covered in ice. Since I keep bird feeders full during storms, its helpful to be able to safely access them.

Cracked corn quickly melts ice along paths, sidewalks and driveways. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

To use, spread the cracked corn over the area you want to clear of ice. The corn generates heat and melts into the ice, not only breaking up the ice but providing a safer surface for walking. It will quickly disappear with the help of birds and, in my case, wild turkeys that will come along and snack.

Usually ice is removed with harmful salt, which can damage soil around established plantings including trees and shrubs. I do gently remove the leftover salt that accumulates at the top of my driveway and property line to minimize rain carrying the salt down the hill into flower beds.

Cracked corn comes in bags of 25 lbs and 50 lbs. Carrying the bags in the back of your car will also provide some weight to more safely navigate ice-covered roads.

If you have the choice, stay home during and immediately after ice storms; no one should take the risk of getting hurt if they can help it. And grab a cup of coffee or tea as you sit at a window. Ice storms are good times to slow down and enjoy the birds at your bird feeders!

Charlotte

New Pussy Willow Starts

More new leaves on my pussy willow starts. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

New Pussy Willow Starts

It’s about three months since I picked up these pussy willow branches. After enjoying them in water for several weeks, I moved them to pots of potting soil hoping they would root.

When I think of pussy willows, I remember the vintage cat postcards my grandmother used to send me. I was not prepared for what happened during their transition. The grey catkins bloomed into magnolia-like burgundy flowers, an unexpected but delightful step. It was fun going to visit them every morning to see what was blooming.

Now those pussy willow stems are starting to show signs of new growth.

Pussy willow flowers make way for new leaves. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

A friend told me pussy willows were easy to get rooted and he was right, at least so far.

I prefer to keep the stems in soil to root. It cuts down one transitional step if they had been rooted in water.

Having them in soil also will make the transition to the outside easier.

So how do you know if your cuttings are starting to root?

A tiny leaf sprouting from the tip of the pussy willow branches. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

You are looking for new growth. On these pussy willow branches, it was this tiny leaf that told me growth was continuing including developing roots at the other end.

Willows are excellent bee food plants so I’m hoping I can get these started and into the ground this spring to keep my honey bees company.

Charlotte

Mo. Conservation Permit Card

Missouri Conservation Permit Card provides 15% discount up to $20 on native plant orders. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Mo. Conservation Permit Card

Do you have your Missouri Conservation Permit Card? It used to be called a Heritage Card. It still costs only $2 and is perpetual so you don’t need to renew.

And why would you want to have this card?

If you are looking for Missouri native plants, trees and shrubs and buy from George O. White Nursery, the card entitles you to 15% off up to $20. That more than pays back the original $2 price of the Permit Card just for plant purchases.

The card also provides discounts for Mo. Department of Conservation books, calendars and hunting and fishing permits.

Charlotte

January Gardening Tips

Iris are already growing tall in my January garden. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

January Gardening Tips

January used to be the month when a gardener could sit back and do some of the most important work: planning. We’ve had record high temperatures in USDA Hardiness Zone 5B, turning growing conditions into early spring rather than winter.

According to US Department of Agriculture, the Hardiness Zones are based on the average annual minimum winter temperature divided into 10-degree F zones, which give a range of temperatures for a certain plant or tree. The hardiness zones for the Midwest fluctuate more than other zones but average Zones 4,5 and 6. The zones for Missouri can be found here: https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/

These zones are averaged over 13 years and adjusted accordingly. There may be major adjustments in a couple of years due to climate emergency. Predictions for the Midwest have included longer springs and falls, shorter winters and summers; and higher summer temperatures. These changes are occurring very fast, challenging nature to adjust.

The following are suggested January gardening tips and chores:

1.         Review your garden diary from last year. Underline items you want to get done this year. I also carry over the ones I didn’t get to last year, or drop them off the master list. This is a good time to dream.

2.         Identify what plants you want to add this year and note what soil and sun requirements they will need. Focus on adding native plants. Once established, native plants will be low care and excel in local soil and weather conditions.

3.         Plan on expanding flowerbeds to start removing grass from your property. Expanding flowerbeds will give you areas to plant vegetables as well as flowers and provide more food for pollinators. One way to start expanding flowerbeds is to place cardboard along the existing flowerbed edge and then move the flower bed border early spring. Mulch on the cardboard will keep the garden looking nice and help restore healthy soil conditions.

 4.        Order catalogs you have used in the past and share catalogs you don’t need or use. One of my favorites is the Missouri Wildflowers Nursery Native Plants catalog, it has lovely pictures with a quick guide on what growing conditions native plants require and they offer great plant starts. www.mowildflowers.net

5.         Order locally-adapted seed catalogs. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds is a favorite seed catalog from Mansfield, Missouri. www.rareseeds.com.

6. January is a good time to sort through seed packets. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

7.         Read. Whether it’s 2 Million Blossoms, a new quarterly focused on pollinators, to new gardening books, catch up on what you couldn’t get to last year.

8.         Remove broken limbs in pathways to keep walkways clear and safe.

9.         On warm days, pile mulch and leaves on garden beds if they’ve been blown off by winter winds. Mulch will help keep the soil temperature even and reduce the thawing and heaving that causes plant damage.

10.       Check inside plants for any hitchhiking bugs and remove. Make sure they are getting their sunlight needs met. If not, move them. Water with diluted fertilizer. Prune as necessary, I use metal sewing thread snips. The thread snips make it easy to trim plants and keep them bushy.

11. Time to remodel bird houses for a new nesting season. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

12.       Drop your garden pruners and other garden tools to get sharpened. Home and garden centers with service departments can usually sharpen tools.

13.  Start scouting where you can install rain barrels and totes to collect rain water off your gutter system. Observe what happens to rain and photograph so you can refer to the rain pattern later.

14. Water newly-planted chrysanthemums so they can get their roots established.

Charlotte

Repurpose Christmas Trees

Christmas trees are excellent winter bird and small animal sanctuaries. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Repurpose Christmas Trees

When I used to write a weekly column carried in several Missouri newspapers, one of the readers took my repurposing Christmas tree advice but complained her artificial tree wasn’t decomposing. Let me make it clear here, when I am talking about repurposing Christmas trees, this is about those live trees that have been cut and those in pots that aren’t making it.

Although it’s a nice idea to think you can buy a potted live Christmas tree, many don’t make it through the move inside and then back outside. You can also repurpose those trees once you move them outside.

How to Repurpose Christmas Trees

Once all ornaments and lights have been removed, there are many things you can do with the Christmas tree in your garden:

1. Place tree in a garden corner for a sanctuary for birds. Birds will use the branches for cover during windy, snowy days.

2. Cut up the tree and use the branches to protect rose bushes.

3. You can also use the cut up branches as mulch at the back of flower beds.

4. Those cut up tree branches can also be formed into a door wreath.

5. If you like the smell of the evergreens, pull off a handful and place in a bowl of water; they will last another couple of weeks if you refresh the water.

6. If you have a compost pile, add the tree to the pile. It will biodegrade by spring.

7. The branches can also be used as natural stakes. I collect cedar boughs to cover cattle panel arbors and to make teepee plant supports.

8. If you have a pond, place the tree at the edge for a safe spot for birds to land to drink.

9. If your pond is deep enough, Christmas trees make nice cover for baby fish later in spring.

10. If you have cows and goats, give them small amounts of the untreated, unadorned tree branches to eat. They have natural Vitamin C and they also work as a natural de-wormer.

Recycling a Christmas Tree

Many communities offer a drop off spot where you can take a Christmas tree. In our mid-Missouri community, our recycling center accepts trees that will get ground up in a wood chipper into mulch.

Dried branches and hunks of trunk will make fabulous firewood for an outdoor fire pit or bonfire, but be sure to keep the fire outside. When Christmas trees burn, they release creosote, a highly flammable, toxic substance consisting mainly of tar -- into the fire smoke. Creosote may build up on the inside of your chimney, increasing your risk of a chimney fire.

If you are a beekeeper, Christmas trees can also be used as handy windbreaks in front of bee hives.

Christmas trees can also be used as bee hive windbreaks. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Check with your local home and garden centers. Some will give their extra Christmas trees away after the holidays.

Charlotte

Dried Hydrangea Wreaths

Updating my bee shed grapevine wreath with dry hydrangeas. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Dried Hydrangea Wreaths

If you like to have wreaths on outside doors, dried hydrangeas are a wonderful addition to fill out the traditional grapevine wreaths. Dried hydrangeas add not only volume but color to the wreaths, depending on how the hydrangeas have been dried.

Look around your neighborhood and see who has hydrangeas, then ask them if you can have the flower heads when they are cut off. Some are cut in the fall, others in early spring.

Here is my bee shed grapevine wreath before I added the dried hydrangeas circling the wreath. I had a few hydrangeas in the center bordered by sprigs of dried Russian sage and orange berries. They didn’t last long, someone came along and removed all of the orange berries sprigs. It was pretty while it lasted!

Other dried flowers updated my grapevine wreath earlier this fall. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

One of the many advantages of using dried hydrangeas in outside wreaths is that they are not attractive as deer food.

Not that deer are the only ones who clear out some of my wreaths but they tend to leave tell tale hoof marks on the ground.

Here is the grapevine wreath as I was finishing adding the dried hydrangeas:

Filling in my bee shed grapevine wreath with dried hydrangea flowers. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Let’s say you have hydrangea plants and want to dry them before adding to a wreath.

I do it simply by tying them with twine and drying them in my garage hanging upside down so the flower heads dry straight on the stems.

It can take a few days to a few weeks to dry, depending on how humid conditions are.

Dry hydrangeas hanging down so the flower heads stay straight. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Now here are a few more grapevine wreaths easily transformed by adding dried hydrangea flowers. starting with a small door wreath.

Simple dried hydrangea flowers completely change this grapevine wreath. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The welcome wreath on my deck was renewed with these dried hydrangea flowers that fill in where wildlife have helped themselves to the other dried flowers:

Large grapevine wreath with dried hydrangeas against stone. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

And these stunning rust-colored dried hydrangea flower heads have quickly transformed the front porch grapevine wreath.

There’s a little bluebird gourd birdhouse in the center now almost lost in all of the dried flowers I’ve added.

These yellow dried hydrangeas add color to this outdoor grapevine wreath. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The biggest challenge is making sure the dried hydrangea stems are solidly woven through the grapevine wreaths so they hold up to wind.

Several months ago I watched as a rabbit dragged off a piece of dried flowers from this wreath. I didn’t get a close look to what it was but I do know sometimes I add enticing edibles. Not a problem, just gives me another opportunity to update the wreaths with what is growing in my garden.

Charlotte

Snow Gauge

My garden rain gauge full of snow. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Snow Gauge

Of all of the things I use daily in my garden, my large numbered rain gauge is in the top 10 list. Easy to see from my living room window, it helps me to gauge how well my garden is hydrated. Soil is 25% water so its helpful to tract that my mid-Missouri soil is getting at least one inch of rain a week.

When I spotted my “rain” gauge after our last snowfall, I realized it had now turned into a snow gauge. But how does that measure of snow translate to garden rain?

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “on average, thirteen inches of snow equals one inch of rain in the US, although this ratio can vary from two inches for sleet to nearly fifty inches for very dry, powdery snow under certain conditions.”

And then there is the impact of temperature.

To calculate rain to snow for temperatures between 20 and 27 degrees Fahrenheit, multiply rainfall by 15 instead of 10.

For temperatures between 15 and 19 degrees Fahrenheit, multiply rainfall by 20.

Between 10 and 14, multiply by 30; between 0 and 9, multiply by 40; between -20 and -1, multiply by 50, and between -40 and -21, multiply by 100.

For example, to calculate the snowfall equivalent of 3 inches of rain at 5 degrees Fahrenheit, multiply 3 by 40 to obtain 120 inches of snow. Therefore, if 3 inches of rain are expected but the temperature drops suddenly to 5 degrees Fahrenheit, 120 inches of snow will fall.

My rain gauge with actual rain. To think this could have been several inches of snow! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

In Missouri, on the average more snow falls in the northern part of the state compared to the rest of the state. An average of 18-24 inches falls in northern Missouri a year compared to 8-12 inches in the southernmost part of the state.

This last snow had large snowflakes, without ice or sleet. I don’t remember the temperature but I think it was above 27F. So not much moisture added to the soil but pretty nevertheless.

Charlotte

Bah Humbugs!

Aphids on one of my tropical hibiscus wintering over inside. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Bah Humbugs!

It’s a beautiful sunny day in the 60s in mid-Missouri, a strange warm day considering Christmas is only a couple of days away. With windows open, it was also a perfect day to check my inside plants to find the unwelcome hitchhikers on some of my tropical plants.

Even though I clean them off before bringing inside, it only takes one little group of aphids, mealybugs and scale insects to take hold and start to spread in a closed up home environment.

Scale looks like brown or black ovals along the stem of a plant. They start out as clear or beige disks that get darker as their skeleton hardens.

Black or brown scale sapping a poinsettia stem. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

You can see the beginning of scale under the black one on the poinsettia stem. I tend to remove them by hand with a q-tip dipped in alcohol.

The aphids look like small white dots.

The mealy bugs look like fluffy white cotton ovals and are often found at the base of a plant and under leaves.

These are mealy bugs on one of my moth orchids. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Luckily there is a simple solution and one we can all make at home:

My homemade bug spray recipe in a spray bottle. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Homemade Bug Spray Recipe

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup 70% alcohol

1 tablespoon Dawn liquid detergent

Shake well in a spray bottle. Apply to the bugs on the plants.

All set to take out those unwelcome bugs! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Check and spray the back of leaves as well. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

If these plants were outside, the bugs would become food for something else. Ladybugs love aphids and will consume scale insects as well. I don’t have any in my house overwintering and ah, don’t plan to invite any although. Yes, it did cross my mind.

What i like about this homemade spray is that it naturally cleans the bugs off the plants as well as eliminates them.

When the plants return outside, the first spring rain helps give them a good start without these bugs having sapped their strength through winter.

Charlotte