Rosemary trees, home-grown gifts and voles

By WTOP Staff
November 15, 2012 | 7:57 PM

WASHINGTON – A sure sign of the approaching holidays is the appearance of those wonderful Christmas-tree shaped cones of live rosemary in garden centers and upscale supermarkets.

These living rosemary plants make great table-top Christmas trees, and are the perfect gift for the host of your Thanksgiving dinner. But they have one problem, they are 100 percent dog-dirty, six-times-sideways root bound, jammed into pots so small there’s no room in there for any soil.

So, as soon as you get your little

A gift for the birds and other holiday garden tips

By Mike McGrath
December 20, 2014 | 12:59 PM

Wrens and other birds who don't mind the cold Cheryl in Northwest D.C. writes: “A wren has built its nest in a corner of my porch. I don’t mind it being there; I even put something down to catch the droppings. But I’m concerned that there isn’t much shelter in the chosen area, and that as it gets colder the bird will not be able to keep itself warm enough. What can or should I do to help the bird get through the winter?”

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