Ultimate December Gardening Tips: Clear, Compost, and Cover!

In this video, I’m sharing my December No Dig Veg Top Tips. These tips will help you plant and care for an allotment garden in December without any digging.

Welcome to the No Dig Norfolk Gardener and our no dig/no till garden where we grow vegetables. We garden in zone 9a. Although we grow our veg from our back garden it is very much set up like allotment gardening UK – allotment life. Our passion is vegetable gardening, bigger harvests and no dig gardening. You will see how growing your own food is so easy.

If you have asked yourself the question what should I be doing on the veg plot, what can I be sowing and harvesting in December or what are my allotment jobs for December this is the video for you!

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As you can see after Mrs W used this as guinea pigs from that roomin escu plants we’re still here it was very tasty actually might always seem too much to do in December but there is to do here are our tips for the December Garden Now although we talked about this in the November chips of course the leaves will still continue to fall during December there still quite a few leaves on that tree isn’t there above there y there still one two aren’t there yeah yeah now when myself and Mrs W

Actually came out here first thing this morning the whole lawn was covered in the leaves wasn’t it look like a golden sand didn’t it carpet of leaves yes so the first job that I did was to get the lawn mower out and actually mow them all up while they were in

Situ yeah we’ve done done a bit of raking and mowing haven’t we it’s definitely looking better than it was yes and then one of our Bays we’re using for making compost they gone into there at Le M can take anywhere between a year or two years depending on how

Quickly warm it gets what sort of leaves are going in there trees around us are mainly deciduous leaves so they shouldn’t take a couple of years I wouldn’t have thought thought more likely to be the year it usually does it’s been quite a cold week actually daytime temperatures have barely got above

5° and over night temperatures have been hovering around 0 to minus one now our next top tip is to clear anything that’s finished so that disease and things can’t overwinter I can see there’s a green caterpillar down here Mrs D oh no very bright green one yes put that into the chickens good

Idea prepping new dig ground for the next crop well it’s quite easy really I’m just roughly leveling it off and where the odd weed does pop up again and I can get those out you can see just what lovely condition actually the beds are in from being

well actually Mrs W puts the camera right down to the ground this is what we would normally be dealing with it’s sticky it’s horrible it’s soft slip on it and then of of course it’s annual dressing of compost and this is all this bed is going to receive for the next 12

Months and only needs about an inch or two to cover it remember if you’re new to the channel the reason why we’re only putting a 1 to 2 in layer on is that we’re now going into our third year of new dig so in year one you tend to need a little bit

More we put about five or six inches on in the first very first season didn’t we did yes yes and then thereafter all you do need is just that 1 to 2 in layer hey you see the broad beans have come on really well and that’s what replaces the uh calibri

And Romanesco and cabbages that were in here and broad beans are tend to sort of space around 12 in roughly they can go as close as 9 in but I do try to give them 12 in between each row and interestingly enough we usually have to wait until they’ve been in the ground

A little while but these plants already have started tillering haven’t they Mrs W they have let me there’s one here that we can pick up second and I think possibly third stem now being pushed up from that one so they’re certainly very happy they were our self- saved seed as

Well from this year here weren’t they they certainly were and what a difference it’s made yes yes definitely um out of 44 plants we had 43 germinate didn’t we y yeah and that’s just amazing I’ve often found myself when I buy the seed that I’ll need to reso at some

Point or over SEO in order that I get the right amount we still do have four or five plants left and the reason for that being that if any of these succumb to the weather conditions then we can just pop those in and straight into the

Ground now the next thing I always do and this is by no means a must you don’t have to do this but I always like to cover them through December January and the covers will then come off that just keeps the worst of the weather off and the wind

And of course any rabbits or pigeons you might have about in the garden thankfully we don’t have any trouble with rabbits but we do pigeons all of the time yes still some leaves to tidy up Mrs W yes I know I know there will be for a little while yet there’s definitely

Still some on the trees so yeah now the plants don’t really want to go in any bigger than this it’s just about the right size if they get too big and too advanced then they do become subject to wind Rock and snapping and although the air temperature as I said earlier today is

Around about 5° today the soil is still pretty warm we haven’t seen a frost the soil hasn’t Frozen here yet with the 0° overnight it doesn’t cause our soil to freeze but it will come as we go through the rest of this month and certainly into January and

February so the idea is at this stage they get the roots down and then they’ll sort of go into suspended animation for a while and then as soon as the warmer weather toward the end of February comes in into March away they will go and that’s why if you take a chance

By planting these out at this time of the year you can get a slightly earlier crop which benefits us because with in our succession plan Sprouts always follow the broad beans we should be seeing Harvest from these anytime from late May onwards and they continue harvesting through

June I sew the seed for the Sprouts at the beginning of June by the end of June they go out into the ground and they end up looking like that while we’re on the subject of netting we have to net everything here because we have a lot of hungry pigeons

That are about and are delighted with a free meal never underestimate pigeons they’re very very clever Birds they will find a way in so periodically I do urge you just to go around and check your netting make sure that it’s still tightly down to the ground I come out here sometimes in the

Morning and I’ll find although the pigeons didn’t get in they’ve already started to lift the netting you can see where there’s a slight hole replace that and get that back down and if you need more stones or bricks or whatever you used to keep your netting down make sure they’re down because they

Will start to become desperate for food and one thing pigeons do like are Brassica plants now we don’t have any cauliflowers treat at this time of the year we choose not to have any ready because we have lots of other things that come ready at this time of the year

But cauliflowers are a really vegetable crop to have as we go into the winter period of January and February in 2024 or the following year depending on when you’re watching this because a lot of the other things that we’ve got about that we’re enjoying at the moment the carrots the leaks will be

On the way but these will then be coming on strong along with our cabbages but if you do have cauliflowers in the ground now and they’re starting to become ready do snap the leaves over to cover their heads because on days when the sun does shine it will soon discolor those heads

And also it will help keep them in the ground just that little bit longer but as Mrs W always says if it is ready Harvest it and eat it definitely smells really lovely in here Mrs W with all those herbs yeah I think you can definitely smell the taragan

Above everything that lovely Ana seed smell absolutely gorgeous now why have we coming to the greenhouse well our next tip is if you’ve already got your seed potato or you save your seed potato from your own crops now is a good time to be chitting

Those away in order that you can put pop them into tubs like our tubs there and you can keep them in the greenhouse during January so that you get a slightly earlier Harvest of your potatoes we shall certainly be doing a couple of our tubs and they’ll go into

Our poly tunnel where they can grow away without danger of being frosted because that is the danger with potatoes you get them out too early that when Mr Frost comes uh it checks their growth and if it’s a severe one it will ultimately end

Up k killing it but if you can keep it under cover where it’s not going to freeze then you most certainly can get a harvest a few weeks earlier than the ones that for us will go out in March but you don’t have to do

That you can wait until March but Mrs W will tell you I’m greedy no you’re impatient V all now after a busy full season in in the garden believe you me our shed’s an absolute mess trying to find things at the moment is a nightmare so while there’s less to do in

December actually out on the plots it’s a good time of the year to be sorting your shed out getting it all arranged back to where you want it for the upcoming season and also any tools that might need some running repairs or sharpening it’s a good time of the year

To be doing that also now my next tip involves compost right back at the beginning of the video I was putting the leaves into a bag in the compost Bay and most of our compost Bay is actually covered it’s got a roof on it we do need to just finish

That which is another job that we’ll be doing over the winter period but for now as there’s no cover on it if you don’t have a roof over your compost bins it’s a good idea to make sure that they are covered with something because the rain will get into it over

The winter and when you go to it next year it will be very wet and slimy won’t have broken down and will most probably be anerobic celer is taking real taking really well Mrs W wasn’t it yeah that’s really pleased about that definite success yes all of the shots look like they’re

Coming through nicely they are very nicely have you seen any garlic coming through us yet I’ve been having a look and haven’t been able to see any but there one more starting to push through here Mrs W look oh let me look oh yes fantastic oh that’s good can’t see any

More though but if that one’s through the others and was definitely they’re not far away and I did say the by the end of November yes I believe you did right again Barry now my last tip is seeds it’s a good time to be going through your catalogs now they start

Flying through your door from now onwards and through January so have a look at what you want to order go back to your old sea in see what you have there if you remember right back at the beginning of this year we did a a little series of videos about the cost of

Living crisis and how you can garden a bit cheaper we all know that generally when you buy seeds there are usually more seeds than you actually need so I would always make sure that I Reby parip seeds they don’t tend to store and you don’t get the germination

That you want if you use the same packet Again The Following Season the other thing that I always do is to use fresh onion seed onion seed is another seed that deteriorates pretty quickly I have used it over the course of a couple of Seasons but on season two

I found that you need to se much more in order to get the same amount that you you need to get into the ground and if you outweigh the two the packet of onion seed is going to be cheaper than the compost that you’re going to need to actually do probably

Twice as many seed trays as you would have done in year one but with a the rest of the Seas it’s a good idea to get a damp piece of kitchen paper sprinkle just a few seeds on there and see what the germination rate

Is if you get 10 seeds on there and five you can see it germinated after a week or two then you’re going to have 50% germination rate but also it will tell you that a lot of those seeds are still viable when it comes to things like brassas of

Course you only need to sew a few seeds you can actually drop two seeds into the cell and if only one germinates that’s the one you use and if two do then all you need to do is to thin to the strongest plant and that way you can

Save yourself some money and not be throwing seed away needlessly have a look at your garden just have a look around it and think to yourself I actually I’ve done really well this year we fed ourselves and just think to yourself the things that didn’t go quite as

Well but also the things that did go well try to remember what you did if you didn’t make notes at the time then try and make those notes now while it’s still relatively fresh in your memory because a veg Garden is a wonderful thing here we are we’ve

Arrived at December almost the very end of 2023 but but for us as new did gardeners who have actually arrived all the way back at the beginning again you go back to our videos in 2022 in December what were we doing feeding the soil and that’s what it all comes down

To if you feed the soil which can then feed all the soil life then that will in turn go on to feed your plants and ensure that you have bountiful harvests which at the end of the day is what we all want vegetables no matter what you grow

Are extremely hungry plants compared to other things that you grow in the garden so it’s important every year that you refresh the compost on your soil so that all that soil life can then start doing what it needs to do in order that the correct nutrient levels are in your

Plots as always do let us know in the comments what you’re up to during the month of December and it would be really really lovely to hear of all your successes and the things that didn’t go so well after all you do get to see all of ours and it’s only

Fair do have a great gardening week won’t you and we we shall see you on the next One