Refurbished planters

Every year for Christmas I buy one or two (or three) pots of poinsettias mixed with other plants. All is well until December 26 when I start noticing how pitiful the poinsettias are looking. Sorry if I offend, but there is nothing worse than a poinsettia after Christmas. Most of the time I take the pots and dump them in the garden - and am glad to be rid of them. This year my daughter encouraged me to try and save the pretty greenery that was left. Since every window in my home that I look out of presents me with varying shades of white and grey I thought maybe it would be nice to have a little garden in January. So I brought in a wrought iron planter that I usually have sitting on my deck. I put in a clean liner and then proceeded to tear the old arrangements apart. What was left I kept in their original plastic liners and fertilized lightly with an everyday houseplant fertilizer (10-20-10). I washed and then sprayed the plants with a bit of 'Safers' garden spray (fungicide, insecticide) since I just know that there has got to be a spider mite in there somewhere . . . Then I arranged them in the planter and stood back and admired. It was easy peasy because I didn't have to add any extra soil - the fertilizer will keep them going for a few months and that's all I can ask for.

new life

frilly fern

a veritable greenhouse

aaack! after the massacre!

snip off all flowers from the Kalanchoes and other plants - you will be richly rewarded in a month or two

wash and spray with an insecticide/fungicide

and you will have a pretty little garden in January

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