Here’s your December gardening guide for North America’s USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 3-10. If you don’t know what USDA Plant Hardiness Zone you live in, check the map here to find out. We’ve left off zones 1–2 (far-north Alaska) and zones 11–13 (small section of the Florida Keys, the Pacific coast between L.A. and Mexico, and Hawaii) since zones 3–10 cover 99 percent or more of the gardeners in the U.S.
Zone 3
- Restock bird feeders.
- Twist and coil long stems of Virginia creeper into a Christmas wreath base.
- Check stored vegetables, tubers, and bulbs; remove any spoiled ones immediately.
- Try to keep roses and other half-hardy perennials covered with snow—it’s the perfect insulator against cold.
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Zone 5
- Cover spinach and other overwintering crops with a row cover, and then top with 8 inches of straw.
- Make holiday decorations from holly and evergreen prunings.
- Wrap trees to protect them from deer and rabbits.
- Force some paperwhite narcissus bulbs: Put them in a bowl with pebbles and water, set the bowl in a bright cool window, then enjoy the show.
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Zone 9
- Apply lime-sulfur spray to peaches and nectarines to combat peach leaf curl.
- Apply a dormant oil spray to fruit trees to kill insects and eggs.
- Sow winter cover crops, including annual rye grass (Lolium multiflorum), fava beans (Vicia faba), oats, barley, pearl millet (Pennisetum americanum), or proso millet (Panicum miliaceum).
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Article source: Rodale’s Organic Life
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