It's time to let indoor plants take a rest, add to compost pile

By Marianne Binetti | For The Olympian • Published November 15, 2008

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The third week of November is the time to stop feeding and offer less water to your house plants. The days are shorter and even indoor plants know it is time to take a rest.

This is the time of year when Christmas cactus (Schlumbugera houseplants) are setting buds so make sure they receive at least 12 hours of darkness at night and a nighttime temperature cooler than 55 degrees.

If you're up on the ladder hanging Christmas lights, clean out the gutters while you're admiring the view. Save the gutter gunk in a bucket and use it to smother weeds in the garden or add it to your compost pile.

I'm often asked whether it is OK to put cedar twigs and pine needles into a compost pile. I vote yes, as anything will rot eventually, but the old husband's tale warns that pine and cedar twigs make compost too acidic. Don't worry about it. Most plants adapt quite well to our naturally acidic soil, and the wonders of compost outweigh the worry of soil acidity.

Question: What bulbs can I plant that the critters will not eat? We have squirrels, deer, slugs, mice and all kinds of wildlife that we share our garden with. Also, is it too late to plant bulbs? — R.D., Buckley

Answer: A host of yellow daffodil, a sea of blue and grape hyacinths or a frosty white frosting of snow drop bulbs all will bloom early in a wooded garden setting despite the critters. Late-spring blooms from alliums (flowering onions) and camassia (a native bulb plant) will have flowers in blue or white on tall stems but the taste will say "not tonight deer." The camassia is a bulb native to our area that also will thrive in moist soil. It returns year after year with lavender-blue blooms, but the garden gossip is about the way it ages. Camassia has long, narrow leaves that not only persist for months after the flowers fade but start to turn pale and limp even as the bulb is still in bloom. Plant this bulb behind a group of peonies, hostas or a low-growing shrub to hide the mess and give it a death with dignity.