Take care of holiday plants.

• Don't fertilize houseplants this month since they will grow so little.

Poinsettia Tips -- Keep poinsettias well-watered and away direct light and heat sources, such as ranges and fireplaces. They'll droop at the drop of a hat.

Poinsettia Tips

Guide to Holiday Plants -- Check out basic care and tips for other holiday plants.

• In moderation, add the wood ash from your fireplace to your compost heap.
• When shoveling or blowing snow, try to dump it atop perennials -- as long as it doesn't have any salt in it. Snow is often called "white mulch" and a good blanket of it will protect plants from temperature extremes.
• Use calcium chloride instead of sodium chloride on your walks. It does less damage to plants. Or, better yet, use sand, which doesn't hurt your plants a bit.

Tool Care -- If you haven't already, at the end of the season, clean and oil hand tools and store.

Tool Care

• If you have fish in an ornamental pond, in very cold regions, consider adding a water heater so the fish will survive the winter. Also be sure to keep the water level up. Water blocks a large percentage of UVA rays, slowing damage to pond liners.

• Set out a nice big basket to hold all those garden catalogs that have started arriving already so you can read them after the holidays, at your leisure.
• After the holidays, you can recycle your live Christmas tree by cutting off the branches and laying them around the base of roses and other less cold-tolerant plants. Or tuck boughs of the branches in windowboxes and pots for outdoor decoration until spring.