The way to a green thumb is through dirty fingernails!!

Don't let the occasional cold night slow you down — this is a busy time in the garden.  Just keep the frost blankets (avoid using plastic as this can quickly “cook” your plants when our sun comes out) handy and the greenhouse or cold frame in good working order. For blooming flowers, put in hardy annuals. Hardy means they are the most cold-tolerant; they can handle a light frost and some freezing weather without being killed. Hardy varieties include calendula, cornflower, foxglove, larkspur, pansy, sweet alyssum, stocks, viola, and many dianthus cultivars. Because they are cold-hardy, they are not heat-tolerant and will die in areas with hot summers.

Continue to plant cool-season vegetables like lettuce, radishes and greens.  Blustery, cold days make it hard to contemplate that it will soon be time to start transplants for the spring garden. Early-bird gardeners often set out the first tomatoes in mid-February, so you'll need to start seed in early to mid January. Check the varieties to see which you will like best and if you put transplants in the ground, be prepared to protect them.  A  5 gallon bucket tipped over them will do the trick on the nights when the temperature is going down below 35 degrees or so.

When starting your garden seedlings indoors, plant the seeds in egg shell halves.   Simply crack the shells around the roots of your plants & transplant them outdoors--the shell is a natural fertilizer!

Apply a fresh layer of mulch 2-4 inches deep to landscape plantings, although be careful not to pile it up too close to the base of the plant.

Hand-pull winter weeds such as henbit and common chickweed from landscape beds. Other types of weeds are:

"A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows" -Greenville Master Gardener's Newsletter.
"Any plant whose virtues have not been discovered" - Emerson
"A plant that grows where it's not wanted" - a conventional wisdom, as listed on Wikipedia
"Any plant that is not valued by the human society" - National Park Service
"A plant out of place" - Diane Relf, Extension Specialist

We are very fortunate to be able to plant year round here in our mild “winters”, and you still need to keep up with the watering, although not as much as in the summer time. Here in the Charleston area, we depend on Camellias for a lot of our winter interest.  A good link to a primer on Camellias is: http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/hgic1062.htm  If you buy one in bloom, a trick to installing it without the stress of transplanting while still supporting the blossoms, is to dig the hole and set it in it pot and all and wait until the blooming period is over!

A good rule of thumb is to prune anything flowering just after the flower period to avoid pruning off the next season’s blooms. Please do not commit crape “murder” on your crape myrtles, come see us for the best size to suit you needs. The best time to prune evergreens is from December to March during the winter dormant season.  It is recommended to not prune heavily in the spring because cuts made during the growing season will result in very dense growth on top.  The dense upper growth can shade the lower foliage so much that it will die.  Proper pruning will allow more air and light to penetrate the plant.  The cuts made to an emerging branch will allow side branches to develop lower in the plant which gives the plant denser growth but does not increase size.

Fertilizing of most things should wait until March or so, because you do not want to push out tender new growth that will be more likely to be frost bit.  Palms should be fertilized 2-3 times a year with a fertilizer that has the micro nutrients that palms trees need, which we carry at our Garden Centers.