DECEMBER GARDENING TIPS for Mild Winter Climates

In this video, I’ll walk you through the essential tasks to tackle in your garden in December. The Arizona garden in December is a beautiful place. The chilly morning weather makes the afternoon my favorite time to be in the garden. Fall planting in September and October yields harvests in the Arizona garden in December. Watch the weather reports carefully and be prepared to cover frost-sensitive plants if there is a freeze. The cool temperatures in December help cool-season plants thrive.

Printable Checklist: https://urls.grow.me/nel5nz5aK

00:00 Intro
00:23 Vegetable Gardening Tasks
04:15 Container Gardening in December
04:30 Flower Gardening in December
05:13 Rose Gardening in December
05:19 Herb Gardening in December
05:24 Pests in December
06:01 Fruit Trees in December
06:06 How Often to Water in December
06:51 Landscape Plants
07:30 Protect Your Garden From Frost

For a complete guide on what to plant this month, check out my other videos, website, and planting calendars and guides.
https://growinginthegarden.com/what-to-plant-harvest-november-low-desert-of-arizona/
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Key December Gardening Tasks:

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I’ll show you what to do in your garden this month and exactly which plants to cover if we get a freeze there are a few essential tasks to help your garden succeed through the cooler eventss if you’d like to follow along download the free checklist on growing inthe garden.com I’m Angela from growing in the garden my Gardens in Mesa Arizona I want to help you succeed even if you’re gardening in tough conditions vegetable gardening slows down considerably this month December and January are the coldest darkest months of the year what’s growing is growing slowly hopefully you’ve done most of your planting so the focus shifts to harvesting cut and come again harvesting simply means that you’re harvesting those outer leaves of crops like mustard kale lettuce and swiss chard that encourages New Growth that will come from the center point the more you harvest the more it continues to grow Harvest all throughout the cooler months this gives you a fresh steady supply of produce all season long it’s time to put another layer of straw on potatoes after planting you should see green sprouts grow up through the straw within a couple of weeks cover them with a thick layer of straw when it’s about 6 or 12 in high spend some time jotting a few notes in a garden journal this month that can be as simple as looking through the pictures you took of your garden on your phone jotting down notes of what did well what struggled what you want to to plant again we think we will remember but we don’t use those pictures and make a few notes and it will make it easier next season it’s fun to look back at this old notebook that I started in 2013 and look about what I enjoyed that season what I liked not so much what did well what struggled seeing how I planned things out Cula ners did awesome so this is what I planted and then I went back through and just talked about what did well looks like the squash was a no-go that year my cucumbers died from Bugs I planted too early take a few minutes to write a few things down it’s like I was planning on adding to the Garden I’m glad I did just like our seeds that we save that get more and more adapted to our growing conditions the longer we garden and learn from our mistakes and our successes we also become adapted and get better with time as we grow here in the low desert pay attention to your worm bins this month check on them see if they need food or if it’s time to harvest some of those castings I checked this bin and there’s a few food scraps left and some worms are still pretty active so it’s the perfect time to add another layer of food scraps to do that I’m going to pull off all of the bark put that aside and then I’m going to put an inch or two layer of food scraps and then I’ll put those same wood chips back on on top it’ll give the worms more food to keep producing those castings I noticed another bin that I’ve forgotten to feed and so the food scraps are gone there’s very few worms it’s the perfect time to harvest a bunch of castings now that I’ve harvested the castings it’s time to make another habitat for the worms I’ll add in either shredded cardboard or wood chips another layer of food scraps and then some more wood chips once there’s food scraps in that bin those worms are going to come back into the bin I don’t need to add more worms they will find the food and make more worm castings and the process begins all over again this process is amazing I put food scraps in the hole I get a whole bucket full of worm castings that will now feed my garden these are the freshest worm castings you can get nothing better than coming right out of your garden this bed doesn’t have a vermac composting bin so I’m going to go ahead and feed these roses so you just sprinkle them on the top and then I’m going to come back in and water them [Music] in fill up your containers if you haven’t already crops will often go quicker in containers than raised beds because they warm up more here are my favorite cool seasoned crops that grow well in containers water wild flowers to help them Sprout or keep them growing if there’s no rain I’m growing tall cut flowers like snapdragons scabiosa and Campanula in these two beds and the easiest way to provide support for tall straight stems for a large amount of flowers is by adding trellis netting to your beds put supports in place along the edges of the beds you’ll need them on either side of the bed and then use this trellis netting to to pull over those supports depending on how tall your flowers become you might need two layers put the first layer about a foot above the ground so those stems can find it early and stay nice and straight to care for your roses this month keep them deadheaded you don’t need to prune we’ll do that next month Harvest enjoy and share herbs from your garden this month aphids and cabbage moths are the most common pest this month monitor your plants and handpick and look for beneficial insects to show up these are lacewing eggs lace Wings lay them here because once they hatch they’re voracious eaters and will eat all of these AIDS although this plant is a little too far gone I’m leaving it in place so these lace Wings can hatch I did spray BT on these about a week and a half ago or two weeks ago so it looks like that did the trick there’s some holes but no caterpillars so the caterpillars are gone but they’ve laid more eggs the moths have laid more eggs so I’m just going to get rid of that one before it hatches Harvest and enjoy Citrus don’t prune or fertilize this month if there are winter rains Skip One watering for every half inch of rain if there aren’t winter rains plan on one deep irrigation if there hasn’t been rain for 60 days plants will need less water than they did a month ago check your soil before watering probably water trees once or maybe two times this month and shrubs twice this month plants that blooming will need more water check your soil in your containers and garden beds if 1 inch below the surface is dry in your containers it’s time to water in your garden beds if 2 or 3 in below the surface is dry it’s time to water those you might be Watering your beds and containers about once a week this month but check the soil first if you’re buying a living Christmas tree check the mature size before you plant it out in your yard many of the common trees trees that are available grow to 30 40 or even 100 ft tall think about getting a living shrub instead and if you want it to be healthy when you plant outside only keep it indoors for about 2 weeks don’t prune or fertilize this month hopefully your trees are losing their leaves and they’ll be great for your compost it can also be a difficult month to plant landscape plants Cold Soil light freezes and short days make it hard for plants to get established Frost is very likely this month look at your weather app and if it’s 40° when the Sun goes down it might freeze that night Frost is more likely on clear nights with no clouds if you know Frost is coming up water well the day before adding mulch to your garden is a simple and effective way to protect your plants Roots if you’re going to cover cover your plants before Sundown to trap the stored heat from during the day the Heat may have dissipated if you wait too long to cover cover the plant completely allowing it to drape all the way down around the plant this traps the warmth inside here are the vegetables that are most susceptible to frost that you should cover if we get a freeze these flowers are Frost sensitive and may freeze if you don’t cover them here are the landscape plants that are most sensitive to frost generally with established plants the leaves may suffer some damage but our frosts are not enough to kill the roots and finally here’s a list of citrus going from most Frost sensitive to least if you have to decide which ones to cover go for your citrus in containers your newly planted Citrus and the ones that are most Frost sensitive if a plant does suffer damage wait to prune until after our last frost date that Frost damage section is protecting the plant from further damage for information about what to plant this month go to my website growing inthe garden.com or check out my my guides and calendars if you would like to learn more consider joining growing in the garden Academy I teach a live online course every month about seasonal topics and members have access to recordings of all past classes Academy members also receive my garden journal what I’m planting harvesting and doing in my garden delivered to their inbox every two weeks I hope to see you there