December Garden Chores & Tasks (PNW & Similar Zones)

Can you really do things in northern gardens this month? Sure – if you want! Here is a short checklist of December garden chores to guide you, including tasks for fruit and vegetable gardens, flower gardens, and basics including garden holiday options. Includes a printable checklist to download and customize.

Thankfully, December is a short list for most of us in the way of garden chores (though in the south there’s some preparation for planting already, isn’t there?) because the holidays are taking most of our energy, which if you’re anything like me, you’re happy for the break from the garden’s major chores.

But what can/should you do in December’s yard and garden?

Basically, this month is mostly about checking to make sure everything is okay, cleaning up from any frost and storms – and of course clipping evergreens to decorate with.

Clipping your evergreens is actually a good thing, as it gives the evergreens a bit of a pruning (nothing hard, though) of longer branches that might suffer snow damage later on.

Both boxwood, cedar and arborvitae really benefit from winter pruning – and they tend to stay greener in the house longer than fir or pine branches.

TIP: This makes a great gift for the gardeners in your life!

December Garden Chores

Vegetable & Fruit Garden

• Turn compost pile with new additions of leaves, decorative pumpkins, and frost-bitten plant stems.
• Check for harvestable produce like kale, cabbage, and any greens grown under cover.
• Monitor vegetable coverings, making sure before any deep freezes that they are secure.
• Spread wood ashes (no more than 1.5 pounds/100 sq. ft. a year, though). See more about using ashes in the garden safely here.
• Use organic dormant sprays on fruit trees, if you spray.
• If using leaves as a mulch, run through a lawn mower first to shred a bit, then apply to dormant vegetable beds.

Flower Garden

• Keep deadheading frost-killed perennials and shrubs as needed.
• Monitor leaves and/or mulch around the base of trees and shrubs – they might harbor rodents who can damage the trunks.
• Protect any new landscape plants from wind and snow (wrap with burlap).
• Check plants under eaves for dryness and water if needed.
• Make holiday decorations from trees and shrubs.
• Pot up paperwhites.

Other Tasks

• Stay off grass whenever it’s frozen.
• Service the lawnmower, if needed.
• Check any vegetables and bulbs that are in storage, use or dispose of those starting to rot.
• Water and fertilize house plants less in the winter.
• Seed catalogs begin arriving this month. Set aside until after the holidays, then start making your wish lists! Here are some of my favorites if you want to get on their lists. Catalogues provide a great education in various types of plants.