Flower Garden - December

If you’re feeling energetic get out and do a bit of digging. Start a programme of conditioning and improving your soil. To do this successfully you need first to find out what sort of soil you’ve got, whether it’s acid, neutral or alkaline, whether it’s sandy, peaty, stony, loamy or sticky with clay. If you’re new to gardening ask your neighbours. Buy a soil testing kit – this will measure the acidity of your soil. Any soil will benefit from having organic matter. You can check out the range of J Arthur Bower’s and New Horizon soil conditioners in our Green Fingers Guide.

As long as the weather remains dry you can continue planting evergreens
Clear up any fallen leaves if you haven’t already done so. Don’t bin them or burn them though – use them to make leafmould.

If your garden is bare take a trip to your local garden centre to get some ideas for winter planting. Heathers offer colourful foliage and winter flowers and can be combined with dwarf conifers for a display that will look good all year round.

Winter colour can also come from berries. The Christmas favourite is holly, which can offer orange and yellow berries as well as the more usually red, but there are lots of other berrying shrubs such as Pyracantha, Cotoneaster and Viburnum. The berries will also be appreciated by birds.

Winter is a great time to sow alpine seeds as most need to be exposed to frost to break their dormancy. Sow the seeds in a mixture of equal parts of J Arthur Bower’s John Innes Seed Compost, Multi-Purpose Compost and Coarse Grit. Water the mixture before sowing the seeds thinly, then cover with a thin layer of Coarse Grit and stand outside. It may take several months for the seeds to germinate.

Winter is a good time to move any plants that are in the wrong place. The task can be done providing the soil is not frozen or waterlogged. Follow our planting guide in the Green Fingers section.

Curl up in front of the fire with a pile of colourful catalogues to give you lots of ideas for next year.

Make sure any diseased leaves on your roses have been removed and discarded. Don’t forget those leaves that have already dropped. Fungal diseases such as rust and black spot have spores that can overwinter in the soil.

Tall bush roses can be pruned to reduce their height so that they don’t rock around in the winter months.

Mulch around your roses with New Horizon Mulch & Mix to help retain nutrients in the soil over the winter.