Book Signings and Lectures
by Monica Brandies

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2008 Seasonal Advice

January is the time to ...
• Make a New Year's resolution to use more mulch and compost on your garden. Already bags of leaves are out for every yard waste pick-up. Save those hard working men a little labor and take some home for your garden.
• Try lemongrass, lemon balm, and roselle for a beautiful, delicious tea. If you don't have the true roselle, the caylxes of the cranberry hibiscus are almost as good. They give the lovely lavender color.
• Try more plants from seeds. Willow LaMonte had seedlings of blue flax growing in the raised outdoor beds and has had it bloom through the late winter and spring here with the lovely blue flowers I loved in Iowa and thought I'd lost.

February is the time to ...
• Someone asked about planting poinsettias outdoors. I've put mine out but just sunk them pots and all so if there is another frost, I can bring them indoors for a night or two. Otherwise they love it outdoors. When danger of frost is past, you can take them up, turn then out of the pots and put them back in the holes. But they will not bloom next year unless they are where they don't get any artificial light. They need long dark nights to set buds. Otherwise they like full sun to partial shade and need to be kept watered while they are in the pots and pruned back after they stop blooming. Eventually they can get to be large shrubs.
• Now is the time to cut grass clumps that are either straggly or full of dead grass back to the ground and let them come up again with new growth.
• Help! The recent passage of the amendment to reduce and refund taxes to homeowners had a some very sad side effects. The state is slated to cut $24 million from the University of Florida's 2008 budget, plus more in 2009, and it's rumored that IFAS (especially Cooperative Extension) will be getting a disproportionate brunt of that cut. Please lend your support to and write or email your state legislators telling them how much the Cooperative Extension Office and the good people who work there have helped in our gardening and homekeeping efforts and ask them to find fund elsewhere. Libraries are also feeling the cuts, so mention them as well.

March is strawberry time ...
• Check the classified section of your newspaper for the picking places nearest you.
• Strawberries are packed with phytonutrients and antioxidants, both of which fight free radicals. (Free radicals are elements that can damage cells, and are thought to contribute to the formation of many kinds of cancer.) While antioxidants can be obtained from other types of produce, there's evidence that strawberries are particularly potent in this department.
• Strawberries also contain a wide range of nutrients. Vitamin C heads the group, but they're also strong in vitamin K, manganese, folic acid, potassium, riboflavin, vitamin B5, vitamin B6, copper, magnesium, and omega-3 fatty acids.
• Best of all, strawberries are available year-round, especially if you fill your freezer now, so they offer an everyday opportunity to add great taste and nutrition a healthy diet.
• Unlike some fruits, strawberries don't continue to ripen after they're picked; and they're quite perishable. Store them in the refrigerator and do not wash them until you are ready to eat or freeze them. Choose the reddest and ripest because strawberries' antioxidant properties are thought to be what makes them bright red, and the reddest ones will have the best taste and the highest nutrient density.

April is the time to ...
• Carry an apron or old shirt in your car or truck for times when you find leaves or pine needles and are in your good clothes.
• Gather mulch only on your way home. Don't let bags sit in your car in the sun. Sometimes it doesn't matter, but sometimes an odor develops that stays in the car.
• Weed as needed. Weeds in the garden will take as much as half of the moisture and nutrients away from the plants you want to thrive.
• Check a book out from the children's department in the library for a quick course on the fascinating facts of beekeeping.