Gardening to-do list for December

  • By Steve Smith, Sunnyside Nursery
  • Monday, December 3, 2012 3:18pm
  • Local News

For the most part, December is a follow-up from November. Chores that didn’t get accomplished last month should be done this month. You can still plant bulbs, fertilize your lawn, clean up the beds and apply compost. Thanks to the mild fall weather, I still have a few leaves on my trees and a few perennials that haven’t melted down to the ground. Some of my beds I like to leave a “mess” until February and others I like to clean up and mulch as soon as everything is dormant. Gardening is not an absolute science, but rather a blend of personal preferences. In the end it all works out. Here are some thoughts for December.

Fruit and flowering trees: Clean up all leaves and dispose of properly. I believe in keeping gardening simple — so to that end I am recommending one or two applications of Bonide Orchard spray on one of those “nice days” this winter to help control insects and diseases. It is all natural and very safe to use. Don’t do any pruning until February.

Vegetables: It’s too late to plant veggies unless you have built a cloche so go ahead and spread compost over the soil and say good night for the winter. This will keep the weeds down over the winter and by spring you can rototill it into the soil and you will have the best garden in the neighborhood.

Flowers/containers: I know it is hard to believe, but you can still plant pansies and violas, lots of evergreen perennials and small shrubs that can add color and texture all winter. No need to look at empty pots.

Grapes and kiwis: Leave them alone until February for pruning, but hit them with some of that Bonide Orchard Spray for disease control this winter.

Roses: Remember “Hip high in the fall, knee high in the spring”. This is how you should be pruning most of your roses. Climbing roses need to be secured to their trellis and the long canes shortened up just a little bit. After pruning and thoroughly cleaning around the base of the rose, apply some lime and then pile up some mulch about 10-12 inches high to protect the graft union from a really ugly winter.

Ornamental grasses: There are two camps of grasses. Evergreen grasses like the sedges, fescues, blue oat grass and pampas grass should be left alone until late February and then cut close to the ground. Deciduous grasses like all the maiden grasses and Japanese forest grass can be cut down to the ground anytime now. It’s really that simple.

Finally, remember that there is something of interest every day of the year here in the Northwest. There is not a day that goes by that I can’t go out into the nursery and find some plant that is either in bloom or is sporting berries or interesting bark or an unusual branching pattern or wonderful fall color. There is no reason to go through our gray winters looking at a bare and boring garden. Plan an excursion to the nursery and see for yourself or visit a botanical garden like the Evergreen Arboretum and Gardens in Everett or the Bellevue Botanical Garden in Bellevue and see what a little creativity can do for your garden. Don’t settle for mundane when you can have exhilarating.

Go to Sunnyside Nursery’s website at www.sunnysidenursery.net or email info@sunnysidenursery.net.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

Alan Edward Dean, convicted of the 1993 murder of Melissa Lee, professes his innocence in the courtroom during his sentencing Wednesday, April 24, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Bothell man gets 26 years in cold case murder of Melissa Lee, 15

“I’m innocent, not guilty. … They planted that DNA. I’ve been framed,” said Alan Edward Dean, as he was sentenced for the 1993 murder.

Bothell
Man gets 75 years for terrorizing exes in Bothell, Mukilteo

In 2021, Joseph Sims broke into his ex-girlfriend’s home in Bothell and assaulted her. He went on a crime spree from there.

A Tesla electric vehicle is seen at a Tesla electric vehicle charging station at Willow Festival shopping plaza parking lot in Northbrook, Ill., Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022. A Tesla driver who had set his car on Autopilot was “distracted” by his phone before reportedly hitting and killing a motorcyclist Friday on Highway 522, according to a new police report. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Tesla driver on Autopilot caused fatal Highway 522 crash, police say

The driver was reportedly on his phone with his Tesla on Autopilot on Friday when he crashed into Jeffrey Nissen, killing him.

The Seattle courthouse of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. (Zachariah Bryan / The Herald) 20190204
Mukilteo bookkeeper sentenced to federal prison for fraud scheme

Jodi Hamrick helped carry out a scheme to steal funds from her employer to pay for vacations, Nordstrom bills and more.

A passenger pays their fare before getting in line for the ferry on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023 in Mukilteo, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
$55? That’s what a couple will pay on the Edmonds-Kingston ferry

The peak surcharge rates start May 1. Wait times also increase as the busy summer travel season kicks into gear.

In this Jan. 4, 2019 photo, workers and other officials gather outside the Sky Valley Education Center school in Monroe, Wash., before going inside to collect samples for testing. The samples were tested for PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, as well as dioxins and furans. A lawsuit filed on behalf of several families and teachers claims that officials failed to adequately respond to PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, in the school. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Judge halves $784M for women exposed to Monsanto chemicals at Monroe school

Monsanto lawyers argued “arbitrary and excessive” damages in the Sky Valley Education Center case “cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny.”

Mukilteo Police Chief Andy Illyn and the graphic he created. He is currently attending the 10-week FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. (Photo provided by Andy Illyn)
Help wanted: Unicorns for ‘pure magic’ career with Mukilteo police

“There’s a whole population who would be amazing police officers” but never considered it, the police chief said.

President of Pilchuck Audubon Brian Zinke, left, Interim Executive Director of Audubon Washington Dr.Trina Bayard,  center, and Rep. Rick Larsen look up at a bird while walking in the Narcbeck Wetland Sanctuary on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Larsen’s new migratory birds law means $6.5M per year in avian aid

North American birds have declined by the billions. This week, local birders saw new funding as a “a turning point for birds.”

FILE - In this May 26, 2020, file photo, a grizzly bear roams an exhibit at the Woodland Park Zoo, closed for nearly three months because of the coronavirus outbreak in Seattle. Grizzly bears once roamed the rugged landscape of the North Cascades in Washington state but few have been sighted in recent decades. The federal government is scrapping plans to reintroduce grizzly bears to the North Cascades ecosystem. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
Grizzlies to return to North Cascades, feds confirm in controversial plan

Under a final plan announced Thursday, officials will release three to seven bears per year. They anticipate 200 in a century.s

Everett
Police: 1 injured in south Everett shooting

Police responded to reports of shots fired in the 9800 block of 18th Avenue W. It was unclear if officers booked a suspect into custody.

Patrick Lester Clay (Photo provided by the Department of Corrections)
Police searching for Monroe prison escapee

Officials suspect Patrick Lester Clay, 59, broke into an employee’s office, stole their car keys and drove off.

People hang up hearts with messages about saving the Clark Park gazebo during a “heart bomb” event hosted by Historic Everett on Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Clark Park gazebo removal complicated by Everett historical group

Over a City Hall push, the city’s historical commission wants to find ways to keep the gazebo in place, alongside a proposed dog park.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.