lindamckendry
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December is a great month to forage in the garden for DIY project’s like this succulent table top tree.
Purchase/Plant
- Begin planting bare-root roses, trees, vines, berries, and vegetables
- Choose and plant sasanqua camellias and early blooming azaleas
- Finish planting all spring-flowering bulbs, except tulips, hyacinths, and crocuses, on or before December.
- Purchase permanent plants that are colorful in winter
- Plant culinary herbs in pots for use in turkey stuffing
- Continue to plant winter vegetables
Trim/Prune/Mow/Divide
- Stop picking and deadheading roses; leave the hips on the bush
- Start pruning deciduous fruit trees
- Prune grapes
- Prune low-chill raspberries and other berries
- Prune native plants
- Prune Wisteria by cutting off unwanted long twiners and prune roots of vines that fail to bloom.
- Pick plant materials from the garden to use as holiday decorations
- Mow cool-season lawns, including Bermuda that’s overseeded with winter ryegrass
- Do not mow warm-season lawns
Fertilize
- Do not fertilize roses
- Feed cool-season flowers with a complete fertilizer for growth and bloom
- Feed shade plants for bloom; give them adequate light
- Feed cool-season lawns but not warm-season lawn
Water
- Do not water succulents growing in the ground
- Continue to water other plants if the weather’s hot, dry, and windy
- Do not water roses
Control Pests, Diseases, and Weeds
- Spray peach and apricot trees for peach leaf curl
- Use dormant spray on deciduous fruit trees and other woody plants that drop their leaves in winter
Also this Month
- Prepare for frost in areas where it is expected by sheltering tropical plants growing in containers
- Prepare beds for planting bare-root roses next month
- Lift Dahlias and store them for the winter
- Tie up permanent vines so they do not get knocked down by the rain or wind
- Harvest winter vegetables as soon as they mature
