Gardening This Weekend: December 12, 2024
We all have things we want to get done, especially at this time of the year. Here are the essential gardening tasks you’ll want to get under your belt over the next several days.
PLANT
• Container color to brighten your entry or patio. Plant pots of pansies, violas, cyclamen or pinks. Protect them should temperatures drop very far into the 20s.
• All spring-flowering bulbs. This includes tulips and Dutch hyacinths you’ve hopefully been chilling in the refrigerator (not the freezer) for at least 45 days.
• Dig and transplant trees and shrubs that need to be moved as you have time. Don’t rush the job, though – take care to hold the root balls together in the process.
PRUNE
• Mistletoe from trees while the clumps are still young and small. Whenever you can, clip the supporting twigs off entirely. If it’s growing on larger branches, keep it nipped flush with the branch. There is no spray to eliminate mistletoe that won’t also harm your tree.
• Mow lawn one last time to minimize weeds, also to remove final layer of fallen leaves. Put the clippings in the compost. Don’t send them to the landfill – they’re too valuable for all the nutrients and organic matter they can return to your soil.
• Stubble from annual and perennial gardens to tidy your landscape.
FERTILIZE
• One cupful of high-nitrogen lawn food per cubic yard of compost every month or two over the winter. Use spading fork to turn the pile, exposing it to oxygen. Bacteria that cause the organic matter to decay will use the nitrogen to speed their work.
• Cool-season annuals with water-soluble, high-nitrogen plant food each time that you water them.
• Houseplants with diluted, water-soluble, high-nitrogen plant food monthly. You’re not trying to encourage a lot of growth, but merely to maintain them until brighter days return.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Cold spells. Have frost cloth cut, labeled, and ready to put in place over vulnerable plants.
• Houseplants for scale insects, mealybugs, whiteflies, spider mites, and other pests that show up while they are indoors, away from natural predators.
• Living Christmas trees should be kept indoors for as short a time as possible, so they don’t acclimate to warm conditions. Keep them away from hot drafts.