Can’t wait for spring?         Bring spring indoors, and you can enjoy early flowers.     Pussy willow can be cut and brought indoors for forcing any time after the middle of January.     Force forsythia into flowering next, starting as early as February.

If you’ve been smart enough to plant horseradish, your reward is at hand. Now that the tops of the horseradish plants have died back to the ground, it is time to dig up the roots and make horseradish with a kick. Add fresh homemade horseradish to cocktail sauce, horseradish sauce or your favorite baked beans, and you’ll feel that kick.

Last year’s crop of onions was great. It was a bumper crop and should have supplied the family with fresh onions through March and into April as the previous year’s crop. However, due to the early sprouting and a disease called neck rot, we finished eating the last onion shortly after Thanksgiving. Having never experienced this problem before, I decided to investigate the cause.

Healthy plants grow, and unless pruned, they often outgrow their function in the landscape. This problem is most often resolved by pruning during the spring and summer. But pruning boxwoods during these months often spreads canker-causing microorganisms between the cut surfaces, infecting the branches. Cankers damage boxwoods and are difficult to control with fungicides.

You can now pick fresh, crisp ruby-red radishes from your cold frame, as well as spinach, lettuce and green onions. If you have a cold frame, that is. If not, here are instructions so you won’t miss out next year.

Several readers have expressed concern that the warm winter will cause plants to flower and grow. There is no need to worry about native plants in our climate initiating growth or flowering before spring.

My 2011 vegetable garden was the most productive I have ever had. Even as I write this column in early January, I am still harvesting kale, collard greens, kohlrabi, cabbage, mustard greens and Brussels sprouts. I also had the best harvest ever of fall peas, snap beans and carrots.

The seed catalogs have been coming in the mail since early December; most will have been mailed by mid January. Many of the catalogs offer bonuses if you order early. You can save money by purchasing early, and you are guaranteed against having to accept substitutions.     Concentrate on the same catalog to save money on packaging and shipping. If you examine servicing charges closely you will notice that as the sub-total increases, the packaging fees decrease.

The temperature in the middle of my compost pile ranges from 90 to 120 degrees. I measure using a compost thermometer with a 14-inch stem. The height of the pile has been shrinking rapidly, with the center sinking faster than the edges. Temperature and shrinkage tell me that the microbes are feasting, changing those leaves, weeds and grass clippings into compost.

Keep Christmas in bloom by shielding your poinsettias from sudden drops in temperature. Remember, poinsettia are a tropical plant, so a sudden chill below 40 degrees can cause the plant to quickly lose foliage, including the red or white bracks.     At 36 degrees, foliage can be freeze-damaged. Within 24 to 48 hours, tissues between the veins in the leaves will appear water-soaked and turn black-green. There is no recovery.