Your Garden This Month: December

We know December can be a short month with a lot of small jobs to do before the holiday break, so we have to be organised.

Deadhead roses and give them a light fertilise, to bring on the next flush.

Look at your fruit trees and if they are very heavy with fruit, thin every second one out to improve fruit size and quality, reduce weight from the limb and conserve some of the tree’s energy. If the limb is still going to be heavy when fruit fattens up, support the limb with a prop. (However, avoid pruning the fruit tree limbs while they are growing through the fruit growth stage, as this interference can cause fruit drop or defective fruit.) Check out this helpful wiki tutorial on How to Deadhead Roses.

Continue to check your veggies for insect attack, spray with eco-oil or organic chilli spray to ward them off. Egg shells on the ground help to deter the white cabbage butterfly.

Lawn beetle is now very active and any evidence of birds pecking the lawn or dead patches should be investigated quickly.

Wetting agent applied to a lawn, and watered in thoroughly in the cool of the day, will help to get more out of your watering, and give it a more even greener cover. (Some light fertiliser a week or so after the wetter is applied will bring a deeper green appearance to your lawn.)

Irrigation system controllers should now be running at 100% if you have seasonal adjustment on your controller. Broken pop-up heads should have been replaced and the arc adjusted, dripline should by now have been checked for leaks and flushed, and all solenoid boxes checked for leakage. Controller run time frequencies could be brought forward from twice a week, to three times a week if your garden will require more water through the hotter spikes should temperatures climb to high 30s. (If you haven’t yet, check out our article on Drip Line Irrigation: All You Need to Know.)

Enjoy your holidays and we will see you in January.

Happy gardening!

David

David Allington

David is the owner of Allingtons Lawn & Garden Care. He has been in the horticultural industry for nearly two decades, and has pioneered an exciting gardening services business at the cutting edge of the industry. Through this site, he shares his knowledge and expertise. Return to the home page to view all on offer or drop us a line via the contact form.