While many people think December is a quiet month for us gardeners, when we’re not busy planting bulbs, pruning trees and planting (or transplanting) shrubs, December at The Hampstead Gardener tends to be extremely busy with prep work that lays the foundation for lovely and healthy gardens next year. Here’s a list of 15 jobs that we’ll be doing in our clients’ gardens this month:
- Install and repair fences, trellis and support wires: The lack of leaves makes it the best time of year to check fences, trellis and wiring to make sure it is secure and supporting plants and climbers properly.
- Remove leaves from grass: Did you know that fallen leaves are a main cause of lawns dying and going patchy? Leaves prevent light, water & air from reaching their roots, killing the grass. Our professional machines get into places others can’t and get leaves out from deep within grass.
- Cut dead, damaged and diseased foliage and branches while also weeding and tiding borders. Doing this in winter, make for less work in spring when there’s a lot more other work to be done!
- Prune tall climbers and roses and stake them to prevent wind rock. Check roses, trees and newly planted shrubs to make sure they haven’t been blown by winds or lifted by frost.
- If you have any plants in containers, make sure to keep them insulated from frost and clear of fallen leaves (which can encourage disease). Reduce watering of plants to avoid the risk of rot.
- Prune overgrown hedges: With plants being dormant, now is a good time to reduce overgrown hedges to a more manageable size.
- Raise the height of lawn mowers when cutting grass. Grass growth starts to really slow to a crawl around this time of year, but it doesn’t necessarily stop altogether. It’s a good idea to continue mowing lawns every few weeks in the winter, but at a high setting. This not only keeps it tidy, but is also an effective way of removing leaves from the top of the grass.
- Plant tulip bulbs: While it is late in the season, it’s not too late to get bulbs in the ground for a nice spring display.
- Turn off garden taps and winterise irrigation systems
- Design and install Winter / Christmas window boxes and containers.
- Continue winter digging over of existing plant beds while also digging and preparing new beds for planting up in spring. Winter Cultivation (otherwise known as digging or turning the soil over) improves soil structure by alleviating compaction and allows the frost to break up the soil over the winter, improving the structure for next growing season.
- Repair and patch lawns, when the weather allows
- Spread organic matter and mulch around plants and borders to improve the soil and reduce weeds next spring
- Move plants: with plants going dormant, now is the time of year to move herbaceous perenials, deciduous shrubs, climbers and trees.
- (Couch) Potato Gardening: Sometimes the weather is just too bad to do anything outside, even for us, and so we retreat home to plan what we need to do in our clients’ gardens next year.
If you don’t want to brave the cold and rain or would like help around your garden, please contact us. We’d be happy to help you make your garden the best it can be!