December - Making Plans for the Year Ahead

December - Time for Next Year's Plans

Real winter has arrived. Finish all outdoor work. Pile the last load of leaves around ornamental shrubs and roses. Check your fences. Protect young trees from rabbits with wire mesh. Ornamental shrubs and trees can be treated with anti-browsing paint. By five o'clock it's already dark, the day is too short for any extensive garden work. If it's not freezing too hard, you can dig holes for spring planting of trees and shrubs.

On December 4th, St. Barbara's Day, we cut cherry branches, called "Barbara branches", which will bloom for Christmas and create a traditional interior decoration. Cut the branches carefully so as not to damage the tree. Choose those branches that have buds clustered in a bouquet-like arrangement. The flowers will be more reliable and beautiful.

For Christmas, hyacinths and daffodils will also be suitable for floral decoration. These belong to the group of bulbs suitable for forcing. Clean the bulbs of roots and dirt and place them on a glass.

Forcing Flowers in December

Hyacinths (lat. Hyacinthus) - belong among bulbs suitable for forcing. Forcing can be done from October to the beginning of December. Choose the largest bulbs for forcing. They are forced in clean water. Place a larger piece of charcoal in the glass. Pour in boiled water. The water should reach a maximum temperature of 10°C. Soft water is more suitable. Place the bulb on the glass. It should just barely touch the water. If we don't have a dark room, wrap the glass in paper. Leave the plant in a room at 10-12°C. As soon as a flower stalk appears on the rooting plant, move it to a warmer room. Add water carefully so that the bulb surface remains dry. The hyacinth will bloom at the earliest in January, more likely later.

We also force other plants, for example:

Lily of the valley - force in a warm bath at 32°C for about 12-14 hours. Plant lily of the valley buds in moist sawdust with 10 cm roots. This forcing is more demanding for home use. The forcing room should be at 20°C.

Snowflakes - bring out snowflakes stored in September in boxes with quality substrate in a cold place, into the light in a room around 10°C.

Snowdrops - and also spring snowflakes, plant in bowls in September. Place them in a cold frame. At the beginning of February, move them to a warm room. The suitable temperature is 12°C.

December Garden Activities

Wet snow - if a lot falls, carefully shake it off the trees.

Unwanted woody plants - remove young plants of elderberry, maples, etc. from the garden, which were brought in during the summer from seeds.

Fertilizing - in favorable weather, we can fertilize the lawn, flowers, and shrubs with compost.

Stored tubers - check them. If any tubers (dahlias, gladioli, etc.) are moldy, remove them from the basket. Store the tubers in a drier environment.

Diseased fruit trees - remove them from gardens, fields and public spaces. You should especially remove trees and shrubs heavily affected by viral diseases. Viral diseases of trees are very difficult to treat. They spread quickly.

Prepare your tools - for winter pruning and winter spraying of fruit trees.

Strawberry plants - if it snows, it's worth piling snow on them. This will protect the roots from freezing.

Vegetable Beds

Finish digging and fertilizing empty vegetable beds. If the beds are heavily frozen, don't dig them and save your energy. On frozen soil you can spread compost around the garden.

• leave horseradish in the beds. Dig up part of the roots and store them in the cellar for Christmas to serve with carp.
• cover spinach and winter lettuce with conifer branches if you didn't do so in November.
• bring pots with planted chives, parsley and savory indoors for forcing.
• you can harvest chicory shoots (if you've prepared the roots for forcing)
• harvest cabbage and kale. They taste better after being exposed to frost. Use them in soups.

Tip: an excellent addition to your winter menu is cress. You can easily grow it from seeds on moistened cotton wool on a tray. Seeds germinate in just 3 days. Harvest cress when it reaches 5-10 cm in height. Harvest it all at once. Add it to spreads or simply on bread with butter. Long Winter Evenings

Force us to think about what new plants to grow in spring. Study the available literature. If you're still wondering what to give your family and friends for Christmas, check out our e-shop - gifts section. Think about it and try growing less common vegetables or perhaps those that are unjustly overlooked.

Try:

• Broccoli - it may not seem like it, but this is a very undemanding vegetable to grow. We sow at the end of June and harvest in September. You can choose from various color mutations. There isn't only a "green form"
• Celery stalks - a trend in healthy nutrition. Who wouldn't taste a celery-bean salad with white yogurt? Sow the seeds from February to March. Transplant the grown seedlings at the end of May. Harvest occurs from the end of August to September.
• Eggplant - alias aubergine - has the same growing requirements as tomatoes and a long growing season. We sow seeds in February or March in boxes for pre-cultivation. We plant them in beds at the end of May with 40x40 spacing. Eggplant harvest is carried out from August to September.
• Pattypan squash - try white, yellow or green varieties. Pattypan squashes are heat-loving. They grow well where cucumbers thrive. We can sow seeds directly in their location in mid-May. Pattypan squashes can also be pre-cultivated.
• Lovage - a perennial herb, growing up to 2 m in height. We pre-cultivate lovage in autumn or spring. One plant is enough for one family, possibly 2.

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Author: Hana Michalíková