December -Your garden during the pandemic

Plan, Tend, and Journal

• ​Take care of your winter vegetable garden and begin to plan for the new year. 
• Update your garden journal with photos or sketches of your December beds.

Pruning and Cleaning Up

•  Put those pruners down - leave spent flower stalks standing to support pollinators.
• You can look carefully at your trees and shrubs to see how healthy they are and  lightly prune out deadwood removing the lower canes from shrubs
• Don't overclear your plants and gardens, the old growth provides protection for plants and habitat for birds and others
• Houseplants like clean foliage during the winter and watering when dry.
• Keep poinsettias moist but not waterlogged. ​

Fertilize and Mulch

• Pine needles, rotted sawdust, straw, and leaves make great mulch.
• ​Mulch poppies with oak or sycamore leaves.
• Mulching flowerbeds improves soil texture. 
• Tip - if you want earthworms, mulch deeply
  

Chores

• Take care of your hoses and protect them from freezing
• Remember to water your Xmas tree if you have a fresh tree. 

Tips:  

• After the holidays, use your Xmas tree as a suet and peanut butter feeder for birds. Decorate the tree with suet and with peanut-butter covered pinecones.  Later, the branches can be cut and used by setting them over perennial beds to protect the plants from heaving.
• As always, keep your tools clean and clean your tools as you move from plant to plant. 
• Wear gloves for all of your gardening and yard chores;  protect your skin from sun, dirt, bugs, and poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac.  ​

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Thanks to Suzanne Aiello who compiled these tips for the Dolley Madison Garden Club.