Garden Calendar -DECEMBER

  • Choose the site for your living Christmas tree and dig the hole for your tree while the soil is still workable. Keep the soil in a trash can or other container, mix it with peat moss, compost or rotted manure, and keep it in the garage or outbuilding (where it won’t freeze) for easy planting after the holidays. Cover the hole with a board or fill it with leaves for safety.

   •Hardy trees and shrubs can still be planted as long as the ground isn’t frozen.  Check with us if you are unsure as to a plant’s hardiness zone. Mix the soil from the hole with peat moss or compost, add bone & bloodmeal.  Use Fertilome Root Stimulator when planting and every 2 weeks as long as the ground isn’t frozen.

  •Set up birdfeeders, if not done so earlier, for winter feeding.  Provide black oil sunflower seed, a good quality mix such as our Audubon Deluxe, new Cardinal Formula or hull-less Waste-free Mix, suet, and a source of water to attract the most birds.  Birds also love safflower seed, so offer this as well and watch the cardinals, finches, chickadees, titmice, and doves flock to your feeder.  Use a birdbath heater to keep the water open.  This is one of the best ways to attract birds in winter.

   •Tie up evergreens or other plants which may be prone to breakage or splitting from ice and snow using heavy garden twine, stretch tie, or strips of burlap for extra support.

   • Finish planting tulip, daffodil, hyacinth, crocus, allium, and other hardy bulbs outdoors for spring blooms as long as the soil is workable.  Use Bone & Bloodmeal or Dutch Bulb Food for best growth.   

    •Protect pines and other trees from deer damage this winter with all natural Deer Repellent from St. Gabriel Laboratory, Fertilome This One Works, Pharm Solutions Deer Repellent, Shake Away, Deer Away, or Milorganite organic fertilizer.