Winter is coming… to your garden! To protect your desert smart garden, News Director Cassidy Taylor offers these December gardening tips…
For your watering schedule, you should water your plants between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Remember, if pipes freeze, warm them gradually with a hairdryer or space heater as pipes that warm too fast can break. This month, winter begins and plant growth is on hold until February. Use this time to rethink your landscape design to become a more productive water-wise or native plant garden for 2022. Now is a good time to prune or shape evergreens like arborvitae, juniper, pines, and cypress–and save trimmings for holiday decorations. You should also prune dense trees to avoid wind damage; make sure young trees are well staked. For overnight protection when frost threatens, cover delicate plants with larger cardboard boxes, old sheets, or tarps. Consider setting irrigation timers to off, and manually water in response to our irregular winter weather, based on winds, rain, or snow. And remember to turn off watering systems during measurable precipitation, and for 24 hours following–it’s the law.
