SACANDAGA GARDEN CLUB - By Barbara Henry

My house is full of the scent of hyacinths with the bulbs that I bought in September, kept in the garage for 12 weeks and brought out gradually so that during February and March I can enjoy the bulbs while waiting for the weather to warm up until I can go back in the garden. I will let the bulb foliage yellow and then plant them in the garden. They will flower again next year though they won’t be as big. I brought my amaryllis bulbs out of dormancy at the end of December and enjoyed beautiful blooms in late January into February. We have lots of opportunities for flowering plants at this time of year; in addition to the bulbs, the Christmas cactus is probably in its second or third bloom for some of you; kalanchloe is a lovely winter blooming flower, also gloxinias and poinsettias to name just a few. Don’t let the cloudy skies and snow on the ground stop you from having a house full of color at this time of year. I don’t know about you but I need it at this time of year.


There are things you can do for the garden right now: if you didn’t sharpen your tools last year now is a good time to get that chore done. It’s also a good time to organize your tools, perhaps you have too many spades or forks? Donate them to a community garden or set them aside for the village wide garage sale. You can build window boxes ready for the pansies and later for the annuals. Do you have an old window taking up space in your garage? Set it aside so that you can use it as a cold frame in the spring. It’s a great place to put lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower etc to grow on in the sunny but cool days of spring. Pruning and shaping your shrubs now will give you stronger plants and better blooms in the summer. Don’t touch your lilacs or forsythia or other spring blooming shrubs because you can cut off the flower buds for the year. They should be pruned right after bloom, cutting out one fourth of the older wood. Empty your bird feeders and clean them out with a weak solution of bleach. Let them sit for an hour to let the chlorine dissipate before refilling them. This gets rid of any wet seed at the bottom which can grow bacteria – not good for our feathered friends.

Make lists of what you want to grow, both annuals and perennials and work out where you are going to plant your vegetables, remembering that if you can rotate your crops it is much better for the soil since different plants take up different nutrients from the soil.



When you are deciding what perennials to grow in your garden take note of the cold hardiness zones that apply to the plant. This is a really useful reference and can make the difference between a plant you will have for many years and one that gives up after the first winter. The USDA created a map that divides the country into zones with the common denominator being the average minimum coldest temperature we can expect in the winter. They also show heat zones but in our area we don’t have to worry about that!

In our area we range from zones 3a through 4b: 3a is -40F to -35F; zone 3b is 35F to -25F, zone 4a is -30F to -25F and zone 4b is -25F to -20F. I live on the Great Sacandaga so I grow plants that can handle -30F, that’s a big ice cube out there sending cold weather my way. Every garden will have micro climates where you will be able to grow a plant that’s marked for zone 5 and the snow cover that we generally get also protects the plants. I have buddleia bushes that are rated as zone 5 but they survive in my garden because I usually have two feet of snow protecting them. The downside is that when we get a cold winter with no snow cover, then my buddleias will probably give up the ghost.



Our Garden Club will reconvene on Thursday, March 3 when Jim Hoffman of Sand Flats Orchard will talk to us about understanding the insects and diseases we get in our vegetable garden.



As always if you are interesting in joining us or have a question just drop us a line at POB 675, Northville NY 12134.