The 5-Minute Garden Task Pros Always Do in December That Lasts Through Winter

Understandably, you don’t feel like working in your garden in chilly fall weather. However, spending a few minutes on some quick tasks can make a lasting difference. Here are the garden tasks that pros put on their priority list in early December.

Top Off Mulch Around Perennials

For last-minute, quick-minute garden tasks before winter fully hits, mulching is on all of our experts’ lists.

“I add a small refresh of mulch around vulnerable perennials,” says gardening expert Tabar Gifford. “It keeps soil temperatures steadier, reduces freeze-thaw stress, and helps roots stay protected through those long, cold nights.”

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Give Plants a Leaf Blanket

If your leaves are still lying around from a late fall drop, or you’ve just happened to save them for the season, put this organic blanket to work.

“If you must remove them from areas like pathways and patios, carefully sweep or blow them into garden beds,” gardening expert Anna Costello recommends. “You will be rewarded with an increase in fireflies and luna moths the next season, as their young overwinter in leaves.”

Gifford also puts fallen leaves to work by using them as mulch.

“Leaves give tender perennials a natural layer of insulation. And, as the leaves break down, they enrich your soil.”

Protect Container Plants

“Container plants are often the first to suffer in hard freezes,” Gifford says.

She recommends grouping them, sliding them under an overhang, or wrapping them in burlap to prevent cracked pots and dead plants.

Costello also protects any potted plants that are intended to be planted in the landscape but never made it into the ground.

“These pots get huddled up tight to each other in a protected spot next to my garage. The less space between pots, the better,” she says. “And if there is an extra cold snap coming, I cover them with a frost cloth.”

Trim Plants in Raised Beds

In November, Costello cuts down everything in her raised vegetable and herb beds with an electric hedge trimmer. It makes lightning work of a task that used to take quite a while with hand pruners.

“Except for plants that have pests or diseases, all the trimmings stay in the garden in piles to cover plants that might need a little insulation over the cold Pennsylvania winter, such as newly planted garlic cloves. By spring, much of the cut material in the beds has broken down, and new plants are planted directly into the mulch layer,” she says.

Check on Plant Protectors

After the first real cold snap, Gifford takes a quick walk around her garden in Vermont to make sure frost cloths, rose cones, and young tree guards are still snug and secure.

“A fast adjustment—tightening a tie or tucking a corner back in place—can make the difference between a plant that breezes through winter and one that struggles,” she says.

3 Other Pre-Winter Garden Care Tips 

• Costello and Gifford both let coneflowers, rudbeckia, ornamental grasses, and other native perennials stand throughout the winter so that the birds have seeds to eat and the hollow stems shelter overwintering native insects.
• As many native seeds need an extended period of cold days to germinate, Gifford sprinkles native or cold-hardy wildflower seeds onto bare soil in November.
• When cleaning up, Gifford suggests focusing on plants with signs of trouble: mushy hosta leaves, mildewed foliage, or anything clearly diseased. “Removing just these bits helps prevent problems from overwintering while still leaving the stems and seed heads for wildlife,” she says.