Tasks for every month, all in one place.
(This guide was written by landscaper Dan Weintritt, borrowing the style of Dan Gill's Month by Month Gardening in Louisiana, Cool Springs Press, Copyright 1999, 2006. Created for use by the Louisiana Native Plant Society with the Acadiana Native Plant Project. Please credit all if you share or reuse this content.)
Created for use by the Louisiana Native Plant Society with the Acadiana Native Plant Project
Made in the style of Dan Gill's Month by Month Gardening in Louisiana, Cool Springs Press, Copyright 1999, 2006
December is the month we see the garden transform from rambunctious and flowering, to a quiet, restful, more silent place, though plenty of creatures will be using our gardens as a home for winter. Fall color, if conditions are right, should be peaking now. Frosts and freezes will be knocking herbaceous plants down to the ground. Tidy up if you like, putting clippings in a compost pile or shred and place in the garden, along with fallen leaves, as mulch. Leave hollow stems and grasses tall, as a home for over-wintering birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects.
As deciduous trees and shrubs, and herbaceous perennials, go dormant, it is an ideal time to transplant things you want moved. When moving established plants, make sure they are well-watered before and after moving, and get as much of the rootball as possible. Woody plants will typically send out roots more widely than deeply, so dig a wide, shallow hole. Many perennials make a deep taproot, so get down as far as you can, though winter is an easier time for plants to heal from injury than the past few hot months. Large clumping perennials can be divided into multiple plantlets when they are lifted. Division can actually increase vigor, especially for bulbs and rhizomes.
Pruning woody plants after the first frost will not stimulate growth as it does in spring and summer, so it is a great time to tidy up sightlines, remove unwanted branches, and lift the canopies of trees near walkways, structures, and powerlines. Avoid trimming early spring bloomers, unless selective, thinning cuts are used.
Hardwood cuttings can be taken at this time, especially if the plants are being trimmed anyway. Take pencil-thick, 6-8" stems, with at least a few visible nodes. Carefully scrape away or scour just the dry, outer layer of bark, taking care not to remove the green cambium layer. Prepare a pot with sterile, well-draining potting mix, and poke a few holes with a pencil for your cuttings. Dip the scraped stem ends (about 2 or 3 nodes worth, up to about half the cutting) in rooting powder, stick stems in the prepared homes, and gently but firmly press soil around the stems. Use a misting bottle or watering can to gently water them in, ensuring that the rooting hormone is not washed away. Keep in a sheltered location until spring.
Make sure seeds are in the fridge now for spring planting later, if they aren't already. many seeds benefit from a period of 6-12 weeks of cold stratification for best germination. Refrigeration is simulating the cold seeds would experience outdoors in nature. December through February are the best months to receive dormant, mail-order perennials, and bare-root trees and shrubs. Water well any perennials as soon as they come in. Bare-root plants can be soaked for a few hours or a day in a solution of fish emulsion and water before planting.
Established plants in the ground will overwinter just fine, but plants in pots can be lost in freezes, even if they are cold-hardy. Potted plants can be trimmed back and brought into a greenhouse, or buried in mulch or straw, and kept moist. Freeze damage causes plant tissues to become dessicated. Plants' roots in the ground aren't exposed and don't dry out. Burying potted plants in damp mulch will help create an insulating layer to protect roots from drying out in freezes.
The bustle of the holidays may keep most of us busy this month; that which is not done in December can be done in January or February. If you found the last year to be challenging, consider asking for or buying yourself a garden journal for the coming year. Repeat mistakes can be avoided and successes can be duplicated. Here's hoping that everyone had fun planting, maintaining, and observing their native plant habitat in 2024, and wishing you an even better 2025!
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