Aberdeen Florist & Garden Center

Gardening Tips for December

It’s a great time to soft prune evergreens and hollies. Fortunately, this coincides with the desire to take these items indoors for holiday arrangements. Try not to strip too much from one spot on the tree or shrub, as it will be 4 – 5 month before new growth will fill it in. For heavy pruning, or severe cut backs, wait until March.

Start a compost pile, or continue to add to the old one. Fully composted matter can be removed now, and spread on next spring’s garden.. Use leaves, old mulch, spent plants, and all manner of kitchen scraps except meats. Eggshells, tea leaves and coffee grounds add much needed minerals. Leaves will break down faster if shredded before adding to the pile. If you don’t have a shredder, run over them with a lawn mower. Once the pile gets a good start, turn with a pitch fork about every 2 weeks. Grass clippings are great accelerators, so be sure to add these as they become available.

Run the gas out of power equipment stored in cold shelters. This will save a lot of maintenance in the spring if old gas is not allowed to chill in the carburetor.

Fill and maintain bird feeders, and offer them suet to help them stave off the cold.
If you don’t want a “sprout” garden forming under the feeder, choose seed types that are sterile. Safflower is one good choice for winter feeders, as it has a high protein and fat content and is a favorite of song birds, including cardinals. In addition to cardinals, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, grosbeaks are also attracted to safflower seed, among others. More important, however, is the fact that grackles and starlings – species known as "feeder hogs" that keep other, more desirable birds away from backyard birdfeeders – are not attracted to it. Squirrels will rarely visit a safflower feeder if any other form of food is available.

Add color to the landscape by planting camellias. Fall blooming sasanquas can be chosen now if full bloom at local nurseries. Beginning in October and continuing through December, these drought tolerant shrubs add a riot of color to otherwise drab views. Be sure to locate them away from the house where they can be appreciated from the windows of your home for maximum impact. They are fairly fast growing evergreens, making them suitable for screening. Allow them enough space for free form development. Attempting to make tight hedges defeats the beauty of this colorful shrub. For early spring color, select camellia japonicas. These begin flowering in the Sandhills in late January, and continue until the azaleas take over.

If you’ve been thinking about transplanting established shrubs, November through February is the time. For best success, dig the new hole first, then dig around the subject, trying to preserve as much of the root system as possible. For large root balls, get a helper, and slip a tarp under the plant as you dig, rocking it to get the tarp under it. Then slide it to the new hole, position it, and with reverse the procedure, removing the tarp. Check the depth, and keep the planting depth the same as it was originally. Before replacing fill soil, add a gallon or two of that compost, and start water running slowly into the hole, and add soil, a shovel full at a time. This keeps air bubbles from forming to damage roots. It’s best to let the soil settle itself with the water, rather than trying to pack it around the roots. After the hole is filled, create a “collar” of soil at the “drip line” to hold water in the root area. Finish by adding a generous mound of pine needle mulch. If the subject is a deciduous tree, prune back 1/3 of the branches. This will reduce stress when new growth starts in spring, as the root system will more nearly match the upper parts of the tree that it has to support.

If you’re looking for ideas for winter interest in the landscape, choose a sunny afternoon, and take a walk through the Horticultural Garden at Sandhills Community College. Carry a small notebook, and make notes of plants that catch your interest, most everything is labeled there. Revisit periodically, to see how these specimens change with the seasons. You’re sure to find some that you haven’t seen before, and some “Must Haves”. At the least, you’ll have a great walk in a beautiful setting.

Check out our new Product Guide for Fall/Winter !

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