My top 5 December gardening jobs

Christmas is nearly here so time to to get festive with blooms from the garden and complete those December gardening jobs to ensure your garden is Spring ready.

1. Make a Christmas wreath

Conifer foliage, eucalyptus, holly and flowering and berried evergreen shrubs make perfect Christmas wreath materials. What better welcome to your home than a colourful, textural wreath?

My 2023 Christmas wreath

2. Prune climbing roses

Climbing rose Ghislaine de Feligonde in my N12 Dog Friendly Garden

Now is the time to prune climbing roses. Remove dead, diseased and damaged stems and cut back any flowered stem by 2/3rds. Congested plants can be renovated by cutting back older stems to the ground.

3. Clear debris from ponds

My wildlife pond

Clear any fallen leaves and debris from ponds, leaving on the site to allow any pond life to escape. This will help water health going into the Winter.

4. Prune apple and pear trees

Mature apple tree in my N12 Dog Friendly Garden

Apples and pears grown in open ground can be pruned now until the beginning of March. See the RHS advice here.

5. Prune Birches and Acers now (if not done earlier)

Silver Birch in my N5 Seculded Family Garden

Birch and Acers can be prone to bleeding if pruned too late in the Winter. Prune before Christmas to help avoid this happening.

Hope everyone has a lovely Christmas and New Year. I'll be back in January with more 'jobs for the garden 2024'.