So already time for my gardening tips for December! Let's start with leaves. They may have fallen several weeks ago. You may have done your best to clear them up but they have an amazing ability to re-appear.

They dislodge themselves from stems, branches and ground level plants, behind the shed and all those other places they get blown into.

So, leaf raking still very much the order of the day. Or use a Leaf Picker to get in among those ground level plants and clear the lawn. As soon as you’ve collected up a decent number, make yourself some leaf mould. the best leaf mould is made from oak, beech or hornbeam. If the leaves are very leathery or evergreen they’re best avoided, but even those larger leaves with chunky veins will rot down well given the right conditions.

One of the easiest ways to speed up their conversion into lovely leaf mould is to chop the leaves up first. Either use a sharp spade or leave them on the lawn and then run over them with the mower. This is a great way to do it. Your grass box will be full of finely chopped leaves mixed with a bit of fresh, nitrogen rich grass, perfect! Then simply collect them into a natural jute Composting Sack and place in a corner of the garden to mature. In one year you will have a useful mulch for plants. Or in 2 years you can use it for sowung seeds or mix with sharp sand to use as potting compost.

Grab a bargain!

Garden centres often have the remaining stock of their autumn-planting bulbs at reduced prices this month. There can be some fantastic bargains to be had. True it is no longer the classic autumn-planting time, but I find I invariably get good results anyway. If your soil is far too cold or wet, no matter. Just plant the bulbs into containers instead of open ground. These could be permanent pots or planters. Or if you plant into bulb baskets or pond-planter baskets then you can then simply ‘plant’ these mesh-like planters into the ground in early spring as the foliage is emerging.

Its nearly Chriiiiistmas!

This year the chances are that you’ll be sending more Christmas gifts by post than you usually would. Gardening gifts make a perfect present. 

There are so many things to choose from – it could be small but useful thing like a packet of seeds popped inside a Christmas card. A box of Rootrainers, again with some seeds or cloches, a raised bed kit, or for someone wanting to grow their own veg in 2021. How about a gift of one of my ‘Grow Your Own with Pippa Greenwood’ gift voucher cards? UK grown garden ready plants accompanied by weekly advice emails from me…its hard to go wrong! I hope you find these gardening tips for December useful and enjoy your time in the garden.