Gardening Tips, Common Problems, Vegetable Gardens, Plants

Most people regard poinsettias as disposable. They are bought or given as gifts around Christmas and expected to dry out and die about a week after New Years…if they last THAT long!

Well I received a white poinsettia for Christmas this year and have confiscated my sister’s white poinsettia – which was going down hill quickly. My goal is to grow both of these poinsettias in pots and have them healthy, happy and ready for next Christmas.

Repotted Poinsettia Plants

The first thing I did was replant them into new pots – they came in those really cheap plastic throw-away pots that were way too small for them. I put about an inch of gardening stones at the very bottom of the new pots. This helps with drainage. Then I added enough potting soil to allow the plants to sit high in the bigger pots. I wanted the roots to be no more than an inch or so from the rim of the new pot.

After carefully removing the plants from the old pots, making sure to retain as much of the original soil as possible, I gently sat them in the new soil and filled in around the sides. You want to keep the original soil around the roots – this will prevent the plant from going into shock.

I felt that the original soil was quite moist, so I did not water them into the new soil as I might normally do. I’ll watch them this week and if the soil seems dry, I’ll water. With poinsettias, you want to let the soil dry out before watering. Since I added the rocks to the bottom of the new pots, I’m not too worried about over watering, but I still have to be wary about it.

I’ve posted some photos of the plants in their new pots. Every few weeks I’ll post new photos and keep you updated on how they are doing.

If you save your poinsettias from year to year, please let me know. I’m open for all the pointers I can get!

Thanks and Happy New Year!

Making your own feeder can be a simple and fun project for the whole family.

Here are simple bird feeders that I have made with my family:

To make a pinecone birdfeeder, you will need:

Large pinecone

Creamy peanut butter

Bird seed

String

Spread the peanut butter generously all over the pinecone. Then roll the pine cone in the birdseed, attach a string to the top of the pinecone, and hang from a tree branch.

To make a tray bird feeder, you will need:

Pie tin tray

String

Bird seed

Put 3 holes in the edge of the pie tin and attach string to each hole. Fill the tray with birdseed and hang from a tree branch.

Another option is to:

Pour the leftover bacon fat from a hearty winter breakfast onto stale bread or sliced bagels and then a sprinkle of some birdseed over the mix makes a high energy winter feed that the birds really enjoy when the ground is covered in snow.

You can serve up these treats either in an old aluminum pie tin or suspend them from a branch with a piece of yarn.

These homemade bird feeders won’t keep squirrels from the seed. But they are a fun family project.

You want to place your feeder in an area that is easy to watch the birds feeding and see when you need to refill the tray or hang more pine cones. Hang your bird feeder where the family can watch the birds and will know when to add more seed.

If your feeder hasn’t attracted birds within a few days try sprinkling some seeds on the ground nearby to attract them to the area. Attract many varieties of birds by hanging different styles and types of feeders this attracts both perch feeders and ground feeders