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December Garden Calendar Christmas Is No Time To Rest In The Garden
December garden calendar with the coolness and darkness, brings on plant dormancy in the garden. December is the coldest month of the year, with the greatest risk for freezes and frost damage, and the rainiest month of the year, with over 20% of the total.
Dormancy is no excuse to slack off putting things in your December garden calendar, especially in
California,
where some plants are in bloom every month – it's the perfect opportunity to start readying your garden and landscape design projects for the New Year.
Plant Selection
When going through the plant selection process for your December garden calendar, pick plants with "berries" now, like holly and toyon, cotoneaster, nandina, arutus and pyracanthus.
Their colors can range from light orange to deep red; buying now lets you see the full color of the berries, and lets you get a plant that fits precisely into the color scheme you have in mind for your landscape design. When buying plants, be sure to ask if you need a male plant nearby as a pollinator.
For winter flowers, good candidates are pansies, Iceland poppies,and similar – Euryops is a good perennial to plant in December.
Do not plant the little decorator Christmas trees. Most of them areItalian Stone Pines, which are fast growers – and they'll quickly outgrow any landscaping plan you have.
Weather Concerns
Most of the planting zones set by the USDA (like Zone 11 and 10 for Southern California) are determined by the average low temperatures in the winter.
Be sure to check the USDA zones on all your plants in case they need extra protection in the winter, particularly during our cold snaps. If you've got plants that need a warmer zone, make sure you write a reminder to transplant them into the greenhouse in your December garden calendar, this is important so don't let this reminder slide!
If you're worried about keeping frost off of your plants, the following common sense guidelines will be of use, and should be added to your December garden calendar: In general, the best frost protection is given by moist, bare ground, and by ground cover plants – they serve as a blanket to keep the frost from damaging the roots of the plants, and the plants will need a little extra water to combat the effects of frost damage by main circulation.
While you're checking your plants for frost protection, it's also a good time to take a trowel and dig the soil out and over with.
While you're at it, put in some organics; pat it down lightly, but don't pack it – you want it to hold the water that comes in.
Weeding For The Future
While your primary plants are dormant, your local weeds are probably having a field day. Weeding regularly should be a regular check list on your December garden calendar – this is a good opportunity to weed aggressively – if it's thriving, it's probably something you don't want. If you've got problem spots, where weeds keep coming back, be sure to apply some pre-emergent herbicide as a weed preventive, and let the rains wash it down to the roots.
Things To Do While The Plants Are Dormant
December's garden calendar (and into January) are the best times to plant shrubs, and small trees.
Make sure to untangle the root balls and to set them in just deep enough – about as deep as their containers go. Because the plants are dormant, they'll suffer less trauma from this practice. Even evergreens are somewhat dormant at this time of the year.
December's garden calendar is the best time to assess if each plant, shrub or perennial is in the right place for your overall gardening plan, and fix it as needed.
Look for plants that didn't quite thrive, or could have been in a better location. Also check wind patterns and water drainage patterns while you're at it – sometimes, those plants in the wrong place are actually serving a good purpose as drainage and wind blocks.
Lawn Care And Flowers
The best part about December dormancy is that your lawn probably only needs mowing twice a month now; annual rye grass is the only likely exception. If your soil is clay driven, make sure everything's dry before mowing – clay holds onto water longer, and over-mowing can demolish your lawn in short order.
If you're worried about keeping your lawn green, use nitratefertilizers on spotted areas, and put it on December's gardencalendar.
Remember that in cold weather, your grass is semi-dormant, and needs the easier to digest nitrate fertilizers.
Fertilizing your lawn is a good preventive measure against rust and other fungal complications, which thrive in the cool, dark climate of December.
We've had a lot of fun putting this December Garden Calendar together and we hope it helps you in beautifying your garden. When you subscribe to our 'free' newsletter you will be notified every two weeks of the current monthly calendar along with lots of advice on landscape design and more. Plus, you'll receive our special bonus e-book: 10 Tips for Creating a Beautiful Landscape Design.
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Make sure to untangle the root balls and to set them in just deep enough – about as deep as their containers go. Because the plants are dormant, they'll suffer less trauma from this practice. Even evergreens are somewhat dormant at this time of the year.
If you're worried about keeping your lawn green, use nitratefertilizers on spotted areas, and put it on December's gardencalendar. 
