DENVER — As cold closes in, you can tackle several projects. If you've brought your plants inside, you're in good shape.
This first procedure is about how to top a yucca. Yucca gigantea (also known as Yucca elephantipes due to the thick trunk that resembles an elephant's foot) is native to Mexico and Central America. The dramatic, spiky leaves may be green or variegated with cream stripes. It's great plant--indoors or out--and is drought tolerant and pest and disease free. It wants to be a tree. After perhaps ten years or so, it will grow too tall for an indoor space. Top it.
Use loppers to cut off the top foot and a half or so. Strip off the lower leaves. Insert the stem into a gallon pot. Pack damp soil in firmly. Place the pot in a bright place. Keep it just slightly damp, not wet. By spring you'll have a healthy new plant.
If you saved your basil plants, you can preserve their flavor in ice. Place several leaves in each cell of an ice cube tray. Add water and freeze. Pop the frozen cubes out and store in a freezer bag for use throughout the winter.
Tomatoes that you picked before the freeze will ripen best if placed on newspaper. Don't stack them or let them touch. The old expression about one bad apple spoiling the whole barrel also applies to tomatoes. Even the green ones will ripen in time, extending the BLT season. Yum!
More Proctor's Garden:
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