Happy Holidoo: Woodland Park Zoo serves up its popular Holidoo compost this year for the gardener who has everything.
Shoppers can choose from 2- or 4-gallon buckets or a pint-sized stocking stuffer. The hand-screened, organic zoo doo features a fully composted blend of animal manures mixed with straw bedding, grass, leaves and wood chips from the grounds of Woodland Park Zoo. Adding zoo doo to soil will enhance water and nutrient retention and improve soil texture.
Zoo doo is only available during the holiday season at Woodland Park’s ZooStore from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Supplies are limited.
Purchase a 2-gallon bucket for $12.95, 4-gallons for $19.95 or a pint for $4.95.
Woodland Park Zoo is at 5500 Phinney Ave. N., Seattle. For information, call the zoo’s Poop Line at 206-625-7667 (POOP), or visit www.zoo.org.
Sustainable gardening: The Snohomish County Master Gardener Foundation presents a series of lectures about sustainable gardening.
Lectures are from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. The cost of the series is $75. To attend, send a check and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Sustainable Gardening Series, 22516 92nd Ave. W., Edmonds, WA 98020.
Jan. 6 – Tips to make your seasonal gardening easier, with Ed Hume.
Jan. 20 – Wonderful world of bulbs, with Mary Robson.
Feb. 3 – Container artistry in your garden, with Debra Prinzing.
Feb. 24. – Fuchsias, with Frankie Dennison, and Hummingbirds and butterfly gardens, with Bob Barca.
March 3 – “Oh la la,” with Ciscoe Morris.
March 17 – Rose care in the Pacific Northwest, with Don Morrow.
April 14 – The shearables, the hackables and the untouchables, with Cass Turnbull.
April 28 – Home vegetable gardening, with Chris Smith.
Faux la la la: Fake, prelit, artificial – whatever you call it, more and more of us are forgoing the pleasure of dragging home a real Christmas tree. More than 70 percent of the U.S. households that put up a tree choose a specimen born of factory, not farm. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, 8 percent of American households will purchase a fake tree in 2005, a number that sounds low until you realize that artificial trees can last for five to 10 years or more.
Bill Quinn, president and founder of www.christmastreeforme.com, a Dallas-based online resource that sells about 35 types of artificial Christmas trees, offers these tips for faking it:
Check needle construction. Look for trees with thicker, stronger needles for more durability. Some trees offer mixed tips that mimic the look of new growth and mature branches. Tips should be rounded. Do a pinch test to see if the needles bounce back quickly.
Examine branches. Look for models with metal hinges that allow trees to fold up. Branches should be permanently attached to the tree. Avoid older models requiring insertion of individual branches, a very time-consuming process.
Evaluate the lights. A good prelit tree should have about 100 lights per foot. Lights should have a milliamp rating between 170 and 200 to give a bright, crisp light. Lights should be designed to allow bulbs to burn out without causing the entire string to go out.
Consider your ornaments. If you like big ornaments, make sure there’s enough space between branches to show them to advantage. Subtract six inches from the ceiling height to determine the maximum height of a tree.
Warranty. A high-quality tree should have the lights covered under warranty for three years or 3,000 hours.
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