{"id":19868,"date":"2012-12-02T13:35:47","date_gmt":"2012-12-02T13:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.phoenixfm.com\/?p=19868"},"modified":"2012-12-02T13:35:49","modified_gmt":"2012-12-02T13:35:49","slug":"what-to-do-in-the-garden-2nd-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/?p=19868","title":{"rendered":"What to Do in The Garden &#8211;  2nd December"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In The Flower Garden<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Clear away annual climbers, like sweet peas and morning glory, and cup and saucer plants growing up trellises or obelisks<\/li>\n<li>Pick seed heads and evergreen foliage and mix with fruit such as clementines or limes to make a fresh Christmas wreath<\/li>\n<li>Move tubs of shrubs or winter bedding to a sheltered spot if conditions turn very cold<\/li>\n<li>Take root cuttings of oriental poppies and other perennials<\/li>\n<li>Look for early flowering snowdrops to pot up and bring into the house<\/li>\n<li>Prepare soil well before planting new roses<\/li>\n<li>Cover branches of holly berries with netting to keep birds away<\/li>\n<li>Prune overgrown laurel, yew and camellias back hard to rejuvenate them<\/li>\n<li>Wrap straw or bracken around the base of tender shrubs and climbers to protect them the from cold<\/li>\n<li>Check stakes and ties are secure on trees and climbers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>In The Fruit and Vegetable Garden<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Make a composting trench to enrich soil where beans will grow next spring<\/li>\n<li>Make compost from spent crops<\/li>\n<li>Dig over vacant areas<\/li>\n<li>Lift and divide congested clumps of rhubarb<\/li>\n<li>Cut down asparagus fronds and the tops of Jerusalem artichokes<\/li>\n<li>Buy in rotted farmyard manure or other composted green waste<\/li>\n<li>Use cloches to protect winter peas, beans and salads<\/li>\n<li>Lift and pot up chicory roots to force chicons<\/li>\n<li>Plant new fruit trees, bushes and cane fruits<\/li>\n<li>Bring potted bay trees under cover if conditions turn very cold<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>In The Greenhouse<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Keep potted herbs on the staging to crop over winter<\/li>\n<li>Move potted bulbs into the greenhouse to develop before bringing into the house<\/li>\n<li>Clear out old crops and growing bags<\/li>\n<li>Water sparingly and aim to keep the atmosphere as dry as possible over winter to reduce the spread of disease<\/li>\n<li>Check dahlia tubers and bulbs in store for signs of rot<\/li>\n<li>Pick off fading or diseased leaves from pelargoniums and other plants<\/li>\n<li>Continue ventilating the greenhouse on warm days<\/li>\n<li>Cut down chrysanthemums after flowering<\/li>\n<li>Prune dormant vines<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Generally<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cover soil with polythene sheets to keep it dry so that winter digging can be completed<\/li>\n<li>Keep your Christmas tree outside in a bucket of water until you&#8217;re ready to bring it indoors to decorate<\/li>\n<li>Wash cloches and cold frames<\/li>\n<li>Order manure or mushroom compost to dig in over winter, or pile onto the soil for the worms to drag under<\/li>\n<li>Cut down marginal plants surrounding ponds<\/li>\n<li>Send off for mail-order seed and perennials catalogues<\/li>\n<li>Mow your lawn on a dry day with the blades set high<\/li>\n<li>Wrap outside taps with insulation material to prevent them freezing and turn off the water supply inside your house<\/li>\n<li>Place a floating heater or a ball in ponds to stop ice completely covering the surface<\/li>\n<li>Move tender or valuable houseplants away from cold window sills every evening<\/li>\n<li>For more ramblings on gardening go to<a title=\"Rambling thoughts about gardening!\" href=\"https:\/\/andrewbabicz.wordpress.com\/rambling-thoughts-about-gardening\/\"> this page&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Don&#8217;t forget you can hear me on <a title=\"PhoenixFM \" href=\"https:\/\/www.phoenixfm.com\">PhoenixFM<\/a> online every Sunday 10 till 12 noon.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-19869\" href=\"https:\/\/www.phoenixfm.com\/2012\/12\/02\/what-to-do-in-the-garden-2nd-december\/edinburgh-2012-29\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-19869\" src=\"https:\/\/www.phoenixfm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Edinburgh-2012-29-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Edinburgh-2012-29-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Edinburgh-2012-29-620x415.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In The Flower Garden Clear away annual climbers, like sweet peas and morning glory, and cup and saucer plants growing <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/?p=19868\"><b>read more<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":19869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sunday-best"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19868"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19871,"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19868\/revisions\/19871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}