What do I do in the garden in December?
You’re coming off of your two busiest months of working in your Central Texas Garden!. The jobs you’ve ticked off your list are: trimming back perennials, dividing and replanting or sharing bulbs, harvesting and planting fall herbs and veggies, and adding to your compost bins. If you haven’t done these chores yet, get to it!!!!!
I concentrate on three additional jobs in December:
1. Planting (more like scattering) early spring perennial seeds like poppies, larkspur, and nigella. Be sure to mark where the seeds have fallen so you don’t forget and inadvertently dig them up!
2. Saving and storing seeds that I’ve harvested from my summer blooms like amarynths, zinnias, and cock’s comb.
3. Vacuuming and shredding leaves from my pathways, ditches, driveway, and gutters.
I ask my neighbors if I can sweep up their leaves as well and add them to my piles. I cover all of my vegetable beds and flower beds with these shredded leaves as a warm blanket for the winter. I find that my sown seeds easily come up through this natural light weight and pourous mulch. I do not have trouble with weeds coming through the shredded leaves except for occasional nut grass and dandelion which I pull up as I spot it and feed to my chickens! If you’ve covered all your beds and leaves are still falling, leave them on what grass you have, but continue to collect from other areas and shred for future use. I store extra natural waste to continue layering with kitchen waste and shredded paper in my compost bins.
I love working in the winter garden since I don’t drip with sweat like in the summer, a special treat in Texas! Also, I still need my healing garden in the winter, not just in the spring when life is easy.