Micro-greens, Pruning and Birds in the Landscape
:35 – 6:10 What’s For Dinner: Microgreens – you can grow these tasty, nutritious greens yourself, indoors, even in the winter time.
Micro-greens are easy to grow. These aren’t ready to harvest yet…wait until they have another set of leaves.
6:12 – 12:00 Insider Information: Spider mites – at this time of year you might find spider mites on your indoor plants.
12:05 – 23:23 Eat/Drink/Grow: Pruning – why we prune plants and a basic recipe for approaching most trees and shrubs.
This is an example of bad pruning. This Rose of Sharon has been sheared into a rounded, clunky shape. Judging from the lack of flowers, it was also done in early summer so that many of the flower buds were cut off. Rose of Sharon gets pruned in early spring, and it looks best when done in a looser style by hand cutting. Cut the outside branches down more, and the inner branches higher and higher using a “shotgun” approach so that the cuts are at different places.
23:26 – 27:56 Did You Know: Birds in your landscape – how to attract birds and provide for them in the coldest months of the year.
Yes, you’re right…this is not a bird. But one day when Ellen was visiting C.L. on the Cape we saw this fox eating the birdseed. C.L. puts seed on this bench for the “ground feeders” and to accommodate the many bluejays, cardinals and nuthatches that arrive in large groups. Note the witch hazel shrub in flower in early March. This shrub provides shelter for the birds before they fly to the bench or feeder.
27:59 – end Love Letters and Questions: Miniature roses from a greenhouse…can they be planted outside later in the spring?
If you have a question you want us to answer on a future Plantrama episode, send it to plantrama at gmail dot com.
It’s easy to grow micro-greens in shallow layer of soil in a plastic flat. These flats were planted with mixed greens using Botanical Interest seeds.