Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays, folks!

Since it doesn’t look like Mother Nature is going to cooperate and deliver up a white Christmas in my neck of the woods, I took matters into my own hands last weekend. I mixed 4 tbsp. of Epsom salts in 1 cup of beer. Then, I used this solution to stencil snowflakes on our windows, giving us a terrific snow scene. Now we’ll be able to enjoy an indoor winter wonderland, no matter what the weather is!

Speaking of being indoors, the dry, dusty air in your home can really take a toll on your houseplants. That’s why I treat mine to a weekly misting of my Winter Wash. To make it, mix 1 tsp. of baby shampoo, 1 tsp. of ammonia, 1 tsp. of antiseptic mouthwash, and 1 qt. of room-temperature water in a hand-held sprayer, and mist-spray your plants once or twice a week to help ‘em sail through the long, cold winter.

But winter isn’t only hard on us gardeners and our plants; it can also be mighty tough on our fine-feathered friends. So to give my local birds a holiday treat, I decorated a tree for ‘em. I started by stuffing a mixture of 2 parts peanut butter, 2 parts chopped suet, 1 part dried fruit, and 1 part sunflower seeds into a few empty mesh onion bags. I hung these on the tree along with a few stale doughnut and bagel “ornaments”. And to finish it off, I string some popcorn-and-cranberry garland and draped it across the branches. That’s sure to brighten many a bird’s Christmas!