Gardening ‘To-Do’ List for December in the Piedmont

Remember it’s your last chance to gather leaves for mulching, composting, or digging into the soil.

• If weather is mild, feed pansies, snapdragons, and other winter flowers.

• Cover strawberries with a floating row cover—they’ll fare better over winter and bear earlier next spring.

• Have row covers or burlap ready to protect camellias, Confederate jasmine, and fig trees, if temperature threatens to drop below 20ºF.

Add a second layer of row cover to protect leafy vegetables, such as spinach, lettuce, and collards (remove the covers during the day, and they’ll continue to produce).

Place a few plastic jugs filled with water between rows to collect heat during the day and radiate it back at night.

Plant bareroot trees.

This information can be found for all zones on the organicgardening.com website.