December Moon Calender

LAST QUARTER 5th December

Garden

  • Weed, mulch and water
  • Continue pricking out and transplanting
  • Watch carefully for insects/diseases and learn what they are, how they impact you and what the best ways are to manage them.
  • Continue harvesting flowers and herbs for drying
  • Bird protection over all early Spring and Autumn planted grain beds eg flaxseed, oats, barley, Khorasan wheat

Temperate Forest Garden

  • Continue watering and mulching
  • Observe which trees are happy and which ones are stressed. Why? What can you do about it? What can you learn for the future?
  • Make sure grass is cut to feed fungi and root zone

NEW MOON 13th December

Garden

  • Check for water stress – the less stress, the less pest problems
  • Transplant last of spring plantings – late crop tomatoes, beans and corn, basil, courgettes, cucumbers and leeks
  • Watch for young, black shield bugs – use neem tree oil spray
  • Take care of liquid fertiliser barrels; keep stirred and refilled with comfrey manure seaweed etc. Tomatoes, corn, pumpkins may need a boost now
  • Plant seed into trays for late summer harvesting of dwarf and climbing beans, courgettes, carrots, beetroot, lettuce (tree lettuce will take the heat), basil, tampala, short season corn ( if you are in a area with a long summer), celery

Temperate Forest Garden

  • Energy of trees going back up to tips now to create buds for next years fruit
  • Check young trees carefully for moisture stress. Water stress now will mean damage from cicada, shield bugs, pear slug, woolly aphids and die back on young trees. 
  • Watch fruit carefully and net trees where you need to. We use 10m squares of knitted bird netting, raised over the trees with a bamboo pole on two corners of the netting and pulled in together underneath.
  • Watch carefully for branches of stone fruit showing signs of silver leaf – often just one limb of a tree will have silver leaves. Now is the time to cut that limb off and burn it and inoculate the tree with Trichopaste and or Tricho dowels.We use Agrimm products available from farmlands for home gardeners. 

FIRST QUARTER 20th December

Garden

  • Finish planting any seeds needed for continuity including late sunflowers and flowers for autumn colour (zinnias, gaillardia, cosmos, and marigolds)
  • Keep up regular watering and nutrient maintenance
  • Foliar feed three days before full moon – 
  • Watch for shield bugs, aphids, psyllid, all signs of nutrient deficiencies and or water stress..ask yourself What is the stress point?
  • Decode how to manage better next year

Perennials

  • Asparagus will need to be left to grow this month after Christmas
  • Globe artichokes will finish this month
  • Continue removing seed heads from Welsh Bunching onions to ensure continued growth
  • Runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus) good as green beans now, they need cool roots so keep moist

Temperate Forest Garden

  • Check moisture levels on all young trees, look at the soil and leaves
  • Watch for bronze beetle damage, pear slug and cicada damage
  • Foliar spray with seaweed vermi liquid

FULL MOON 27th December

Garden

  • Feed and keep up with watering where necessary.. a big job this month, 
  • Feed tomatoes and peppers, possibly pumpkins with liquid comfrey weekly from now on for maximum crops

Perennials

  • Stop picking asparagus to let it recover ready for next year
  • Perennials are finishing now, time to water well, feed and mulch well and lay to bed to regenerate and gain strength for next season
  • Watering and feeding comfrey and alfalfa beds now will ensure far more growth over Summer, mulching with ramial wood chip once a year would be great fertiliser as well as mulch
  • You might want to harvest your asparagus seed from the female plants to avoid birds spreading it everywhere
  • Keep removing flower heads from Welsh Bunching onions to keep them growing, they need lots of water and nutrition
  • Use loppers to cut out spent globe artichoke stalks to enable new shoots to come up, will encourage an Autumn crop
  • Day Lillies at their colourful best, remember they have highly edible buds

Temperate Forest Garden

  • Energy is going back to  the roots now, be sure you have   laid the grass/mulched trees  down to feed fungi and applied minerals however you do it to ensure next seasons crop
  • Summer prune stone fruit as the fruit has finished on each tree – you’ll have less disease issues and the autumn growth will grow where you need it.

LAST QUARTER 4th JANUARY – 2024

Garden

  • Prick out seedlings as necessary
  • Keep up watering
  • Carefully observe all plants – they’ll tell you if they need some more water, nutrients, help with pest control, tying up or more space. This is a very important time to good care of the tomatoes and peppers
  • Transplant leeks into garden for autumn/winter use
  • Sow seed for late autumn/winter early  spring  flowering—snapdragon, calendula, marigold, sweet william, hollyhock, granny’s bonnets, cineraria, primrose and polyanthus

Temperate Forest Garden

  • Pinch growing tips out on your fig trees to encourage the growth to go into the fruit
  • Net and harvest ripening fruit
  • Watch moisture levels, check young trees carefully
  • You should be able to have a break for a few weeks now if you’re up to date with all the above jobs. Time to begin picking the fruit and enjoying the season!