Lighting up the Landscape with Holiday Lights

So now that Thanksgiving is here you've decided to brighten the winter landscape with some holiday lights.
  
Always use lights made for the outdoors. Test and detangle the strands before you
start placing the lights. It’s easier to replace a burnt out bulb on the ground than when you are on a ladder or the lights are in the plant.

Carefully drape the lights over the branches of your shrubs. Loosely attach if needed. The new lighted netting makes decorating shrubs much easier on you and the plants.

Lighting trees can be a bit more challenging. Many gardeners simply wrap the trunks as high as they can reach – keeping their feet firmly on the ground. Extend your reach using a pole pruner, fruit harvester, or broom handle to gently place the lights over the branches of smaller trees.

Always be careful not to injure yourself or your plants when installing holiday lights. Try wrapping the strands of lights around your hand and bent elbow. This keeps them tangle-free and easy to move as you negotiate ladders and the plants.

And, be sure to remove the lights at the end of the season. Undetected strands of lights can accidently be cut when pruning in the spring. This can be dangerous and dulls your pruning saw. Plus, tightly wrapped lights can girdle fast growing trees in just one year.

On a different note, I'll be kicking off a "Discover Hidden Treasures" garden series at Boerner Botanical Gardens on Sat., Jan. 14. Proceeds support Children’s Plant Science and Environmental Education at Boerner Botanical Gardens. For more information visit -
www.melindamyers.com/From-Boerner-to-Your-Backyard/from-boerner-to-your-backyard/

I hope you can join me!