December Doings in the Flower Garden
What we do at this time of year depends entirely upon the weather. If it is fine and open, much like it is here in Colorado this year with our warm temperatures and not much snow yet on the eastern plains, we can do some construction work in the flower garden. If we need to make a new pathway, this could be a good time to do so. There are a few things we ought to remember in making a pathway and one is to make it rather higher towards the center than the edges. This way the water will drain away from the path better and give us a much drier and more pleasant path to walk upon in wet weather.
It would be better to do no more planting in our gardens because, even if it is not actually frosty at the time of planting, probably it will be before the roots of the plants could become settled in the soil. This might cause them to decay and die.
Now suppose a spell of frost comes and after that naturally a thaw. We see these conditions a lot this time of year in Colorado and you may as well where you are. The ground becomes quite soft and loose and those newly-planted plants, whether roses or anything else for that matter, that are not firmly established in the soil will become loosened with the soil and lose the little grip they have. This is the one thing to fear from these alternate freezes and thaws, for if it happens and is not remedied, without a doubt the plants will die. But happily, it is a state of things quite easy to remedy. It simply means treading or otherwise making the soil firm and close about the plants before the next freeze can act on the plants.
The cold that is possible this time of year is the greatest danger our flower garden may face. A heavy fall of snow over the flowers may be Nature s wisest and best protection from the bitter winds and frosts. No wind can hurt our flower garden when it is safely under a snow blanket.
But often the winter winds and frosts/freezes are keen and biting when there is no snow on our garden or the winds have succeeded in blowing the covering snow blanket away. This is the hardest trial our flower garden has to bear this time of year and it may be necessary to protect a few of our less hardy plants in our winter climate.
If we are able to gather some fresh straw, we may put it round such plants as the rhododendron, a rose tree if it is of a more than usually tender nature or just anything else which we have reason to fear being harmed. If some of these rather tender subjects die down completely and are below ground for the winter, we may cover the earth above them with dry leaves. Dry leaves will also break down into a wonderful mulch and soil amendment. Be careful using fresh straw that you get a weed-free straw or you may actually be creating more problems than you solve.