Your December Gardening Checklist
December on the allotment brings cold, short days and long nights. It can be harder to find the time and motivation to visit your plot, but it’s the perfect month to keep on top of winter jobs, prepare for spring, and enjoy the last of your harvests. Small, regular bursts of activity are far more effective than long, irregular sessions.
Even in winter, the allotment still needs attention. Dig over beds when the soil is neither frozen nor too wet, protect tender crops with straw or fleece, and keep on top of stored vegetables. A little effort now ensures a healthier, more productive plot in spring.
Soil Preparation & General Maintenance
Dig beds – If soil conditions allow, fork over vacant beds to improve structure and break down larger clods.Compost & manure – Turn compost heaps and move manure around the plot to prepare for spring digging.
Protect tender crops – Cover celery and other sensitive vegetables with straw to prevent frost damage.
Avoid compacting soil – Use planks to walk on beds when the soil is wet.
Maintain equipment – Clean and store water barrels, pea sticks, and supports.
Vegetable Tasks
Indoor sowings – Grow Pea ‘Anubis’ on a bright windowsill; harvest shoots after three weeks, then a second crop will follow. Wild rocket (‘Dragon's Tongue’) can also be sown indoors for cut-and-come-again crops.Mushrooms – Indoor kits, such as Yellow Oyster, are ideal for winter cropping and make great Christmas gifts.
Overwintering crops – Continue hoeing and maintaining onions, garlic, spring cabbage, and tall brassicas like Brussels sprouts, kale, and sprouting broccoli. Stake tall plants if necessary.
Broad beans – Make successional sowings in cold frames or greenhouses (‘Aquadulce Claudia’, ‘Luz de Otono’, or container-friendly ‘The Sutton’).
Exhibition onions – Start seeds in a heated propagator for long-season varieties.
Protect brassicas – Ensure netting is in place to guard against pigeons.
Fruit Tasks
Plant bare-root fruit bushes – As long as the ground isn’t frozen or waterlogged, plant bare-root strawberries, plum, and damson trees. Mulch well with rotted manure.Rhubarb – Divide large clumps and replant or share with friends and fellow plot holders.
Winter pruning – Prune apples and pears to remove dead or crossing branches. Avoid pruning plums to reduce silver leaf disease risk.
Blackcurrants – Prune one-third of older wood at the base to maintain cropping.
Autumn-fruiting raspberries – Cut back to ground level.
Fruit cages – Check or install cages to protect your fruit from birds and pests.