🌿 Gardening Tasks for December
Christmas will soon be here, and there are plenty of jobs to do in the garden to keep it looking tip top for the festive season.
🐛 Weeding, Mulching & Pest Control
Stay on top of weeds, as they can use valuable water from the soil, overcrowd plants and will soon spread if not controlled. After weeding add a good top layer of mulch over the soil to conserve moisture, reduce further weeds and prevent soil erosion.
Keep checking for pesky pests around plants, like slugs, snails, aphids and whitefly. Ideally, if you grow plants that attract ‘friendly’ insects they will help control unwelcome pests, but sometimes nature needs a helping hand so spray affected plants with a homemade deterrent that is more environmentally friendly than commercial products. Beer traps, crushed eggshells, coffee grounds and gravel around vulnerable plants will deter slugs and snails.
🌸 Adding Colour & Seasonal Plant Care
Add some colour to flower borders and containers with petunias, salvias, Dianthus verbena, cupeas, Penstemons, and zinnias plus a few impatiens, begonias, geraniums, Osteopermums and marigolds.
Feed roses after their second flowering with a rose fertiliser and keep the roots well watered.
Summer is also a good time to take semi-hardwood cuttings of lavender, fuschias, hypericum, Perlagoliums and hydrangeas. Semi-hardwood cuttings are taken from young growth that is just hardening off.
Prune climbers like jasmine and petrea to maintain a compact shape.
If you grow bearded irises that have become overcrowded dig the clumps out and separate the rhizomes. Replant the younger more vigorous rhizomes, leaving the top of the rhizome just above the soil.
🥦 Vegetable Planting & Deadheading
Continue planting in the vegetable garden. Beetroot, carrots, radish, tomatoes, spring onions, peppers, eggplant, beans, squashes and cucumbers can all be added to the plot to ensure a constant supply of delicious organic edibles.
Deadhead any flowering annuals and perennials for plenty of new blooms in the coming months.
Browse Our Online for festive colorful plants
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