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Jill and Rick Van Duyvendyk answer all your gardening questions in Garden Talk on 650 CKOM and 980 CJME every Sunday morning at 9 a.m. Here are some questions and answers from the Dec. 28 show:
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These questions and answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.
Q: What I can do to prevent losing spruce trees this winter?
A: What’s going to be important is what you do next summer, and next fall make sure that you water them in well.
Check your soil pH and try to get it to 6.5 to 7. That’ll make them hardier and they won’t brown as much. You can pick up just a home test kit in any garden centre, get some distilled water and then test the soil.
Fertilizing the trees from Mother’s Day until July 15 and then quit. Slow down on the watering after September long weekend and then, about the middle of October, soak them in so they’re almost freezing them into the ground.
I did some a lot of experiments with the University of Saskatchewan a few years ago, and pH was a huge factor in trying to get some maples to harden off and not tip kill a lot.
In the fall take a couple pails of topsoil, cover them and store indoors so you can put that dirt on top of the snow alongside the trees, especially in March and the first week of April, that’s when they get burnt the worst. Topsoil on top of the snow stops the reflection.
Put a snow fence up and make sure the trees keep covered up.
Q: How do I care for a Christmas poinsettia?
A: The red part of a poinsettia is actually the leaves and the flower is the yellow centre of the stem that looks almost like little berries. When those open up, that’s when your plant is actually blooming.
Poinsettia do not like to be cold, they are native to Mexico. They like to dry out slightly between waterings and then have thorough waterings in between. And they don’t like their feet to be wet so if they are sitting in a pot without a hole in it or in a foil sleeve, make sure you empty any excess water out.
Read more about year-round care for a poinsettia on the Dutch Growers website.
Q: Where can I dispose of my Christmas tree?
A: At landfills in Regina, Moose Jaw, Prince Albert and Saskatoon they’re free to drop off. Some of the small towns have a landfill with a compost spot, too. In Swift Current there are a couple places on either side of the city where you can drop them off in parking lots.
If you put the tree in a plastic bag, take it off the tree there. There are places to put the bags and trees. It’s really important you take them apart because they use the trees for mulch.
Check any house plants near your Christmas tree, there’s a chance that spider mite might have moved in. Evergreens are notorious for having spider mite.
Q: The soil in my garden is like concrete when it’s dry. What can I do?
A: There is a couple things you can use. One is gypsum, which is like little sharp stones that don’t break down, and the other is cedar mulch, which has sticks and a lot of stuff that doesn’t break down quickly.
Rototill them into the top couple inches of the soil to keep all the clay particles from clumping together and making it hard.
Don’t get cedar nuggets. Patience is key and you’re not necessarily going to fix it in one season. Don’t use sand because it plugs up all those pores in the soil and you will make it worse unless you use sharp sand.
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