By David Plantowski More Misadventures of the Blue Thumb Gardener I hope this past growing season was good to everyone. Lord knows we had a beautiful summer and late fall. I couldn’t use bad weather as a reason why my gardening failed this time. Actually, even I was able to grow everything (well, almost everything) I had planted. My only defeat was the azaleas. Apparently the instructions said “plant 3 feet apart” and not 3 inches, which is what I saw without my bifocals. Now they look like they are trying to muscle each other for territory. But even with the incredible weather and the success of growing most everything I planted, I was still able to find a way to lose some new ground cover. I planted the cover at the rear of my sloped lot, at the top of a steep hill that had probably been made of fill years ago. I just couldn’t seem to give the plants the time and attention they needed, which resulted in wasted landscaping dollars and a lot of dead (or dying) plants. Maybe my next column will be about how not to waste money in the yard. What I really want to talk about though is winter planting. Really! Do you remember when Christmas trees were bought alive, still with a ball of dirt around the roots covered with burlap tied on with twine? Seems like most people I knew back then bought them that way. Probably because they couldn’t justify buying something they would just throw out several weeks later. It was so important for them to stretch their dollar (and pennies) as far as possible. Buying a living tree would provide enjoyment indoor during the holidays and later beautify the lawn and serve as a memento of that year’s Christmas. My family did just that when I was small. Although I moved away from my hometown many years ago, I still occasionally go out of my way every few years and drive by our old house to see how tall that tree is that we planted years ago. There are lots of memories there. So who does that anymore? Well, I decided this year, after never having done it myself as an adult, that this year I would. Question is: what exactly do you do? Pine trees in general are troublesome to transplant. First, at your preferred nursery of choice, consult with the employees to select the hardiest pine you can find to insure the best chance of survival. Second, when you get your tree home, consider that the tree does not want to be indoors. Keep it away from vents blowing warm air and, despite how “Norman Rockwell” it may look and how romantic it may be, keep it away from the fireplace. And remember, it is still a living tree so you need to give it water. The heat of your home will dry out the root ball, so keep it moist with water to ensure a good chance of survival. The advantages of a cut tree are obvious. You have the look of the natural tree and the smell of fresh pine. The advantages of a live pine are even better. You have the look of the natural tree, the smell of pine, and minimal loss of pine needles. A live tree should spend no more than a week to ten days indoors. But those of us with kids know that they want the tree up at least a week or two before Christmas, and can’t bear for you to take it down for another two weeks thereafter, which is way outside the recommendations. Nonetheless, here is the key: The day you buy the tree, (and make it as close to Christmas as possible), dig the hole in which you plan to plant the tree. Once you have it arranged in your home, don’t sit down and crack open that beer just yet. You’ll have plenty of time for that later. Go outside and dig the hole! The hole should be deep enough so that the top of the ball is level with the land. However, if you don’t dig it deep enough, don’t worry; the tree will settle in the hole later. Over the past few years, if you would have followed this advice, with the weather being as mild as it has been, the hole would have been such an easy exercise. Don’t take this for granted, as who knows what this winter will bear? With my luck, this year, I will probably need to remove several inches of snow before I begin to dig and will have to disregard my neighbor’s looks and comments—“What is he doing now?” Putting this off would be an extremely daunting task if you have to dig through semi-frozen earth in the middle of January. Okay, let’s say you’ve dug the hole, had your beer(s) and have enjoyed the holidays. Your tree now has been indoors for a week or more, and now it’s time to move it outdoors. Don’t just take it outside and plant it. Move it to an unheated garage or right outside your house for a day or two to gradually acclimate it to the outside climate. Otherwise, the sharp change in temperature would be incredibly shocking to the tree. Imagine spending time in a 72° house and then running outside without your jacket on and jumping right into a snow bank. Shocking, right? The same holds true for plants. After the tree has become accustomed to the cold, all you have to do is put it in the hole and fill it with dirt. If you have the chance to remove the burlap from around the root ball before placing it into the ground, then do so. If you can’t, the tree will still grow with the burlap in tact. And one last thing, mulch. Put several inches of mulch around the base of the newly planted tree to help protect it from the winter’s snow. The bottom line is it can be very difficult to keep a live pine indoors for several weeks and expect it to live by planting it outside afterwards, especially when transplanting it in the middle of winter. But it is possible. You will know if it takes in the spring, when it will either be green (good) or brown (bad). But if it doesn’t work, you can always blame the kids for wanting to keep it inside too long. I’ll let you know how mine did this spring.