Garden tips for December Garden tips for December (December 17, 2004)

Bring home the feeling and smells of the season

By Jack McKinnon

December is the most celebratory month of the year. It is also the coldest and the darkest. Our gardens have gone to sleep and the work to be done is cold, damp and dirty. There is also decorating to do and lights to string. The time for sharing and cheering each other up is at hand.

Here are this month's tips.

1. Bright colors make for a festive front yard. Put some thought into how your property or living space will look from the sidewalk or street. Look for the best places to put plants and decorations to create the most effect. Do a drawing or take a picture and color it to see what the finished look will be.

2. Poinsettias, cyclamen, alyssum, holly, evergreens with lights and living wreaths of succulents make for living cheer and color.

3. Use lights, ribbons, candles, wreaths, swags, evergreen arrangements and bowls of fruit and nuts to bring the garden inside and the feeling and smells of the season home.

4. For outdoor lighting, be sure to read all the instructions on safety. Check that you are not putting too many lights on one circuit or you will blow a breaker. Be careful on ladders and especially wet or icy patios, decks and walkways.

5. Invite friends and family over for cider, eggnog, treats and music. Sit outside bundled up and smell the winter air. Look at clouds and stars and the moon. Take in the winter with all your senses and then go in and sit around a blazing fire with a warm drink. All too often we forget to experience the outdoors right here at home. Try it.

6. Start pruning now. The plants are as dormant as they will get here in California. Most all deciduous plants (those that lose their leaves in winter) get pruned in the winter. Evergreens can be cleaned up of broken branches and thinned for light and air flow.

7. Dormant spray all deciduous plants after pruning. Use horticultural oil or dormant spray from the nursery. Be sure to follow all the instructions on the bottle especially the safety rules. Better yet, if you don't have a real problem with insects, disease or fungus infestations in your garden, don't spray. It is a lot simpler and if you get an infestation, prune it out.

8. Cover fragile plants to protect from frost. If you have pruned them down low like hydrangeas, you can cover them with leaf mulch. If you have citrus or other frost sensitive plants cover them with burlap. Be sure to take the covers off when the sun comes out and the cold spell lifts.

9. Visit malls for decorating ideas or stroll main streets and window shop. Go to the city and stroll around the civic center. Some of the best decorators are working hard to come up with new ideas each year at this time. You can get ideas for decorating your yard and home simply by getting out and looking.

10. Be sure to rest and take care of yourself. This is the darkest and coldest month of the year. The garden is at rest, you can be too. Try to have a quiet moment each day to settle and warm up and find joy.

Good gardening.
Jack McKinnon worked in the Sunset Magazine gardens for 12 years and has been a private garden coach for six years. He recently started a gardening school, "Garden Talks with Jack McKinnon" in Pescadero. He can be reached at 879-3261 or by e-mail at jcmckinnon@earthlink.net.

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