Weekend gardener Let it glow, let it glow, let it glow
Get festive with fairy lights
It’s hard to think of anything more Christmassy than a tree sparkling with coloured lights. Look for LED string lights suitable to use outdoors and decorate a conifer in a pot, as well as garden features such as hedges and arches.
Strings of LED lights can also be twisted into preserving jars to make a sparkling centrepiece for your table or, if you are dining al fresco over summer, hang several jars from the nearest tree.
Punch holes in old tin cans in a pattern of your choice, put a candle or LED tealight in each and hang them from a tree by the deck.
Tealights can also help guests navigate the paths in your garden – especially if you want to guide them towards night-scented flowers or shrubs.
Heading away for the festive season?
Then as soon as you can, get seedlings still in trays in to their permanent homes – be it in a pot or in the ground – so they have a chance to get established and survive your absence later in the month. Transplant at dusk or on a misty and overcast day, and rig up a shelter for newly planted seedlings with shade cloth, newspaper or cardboard to protect them from the hot sun over their first few days.
Stake and tie tall and top-heavy tomatoes, eggplants and capsicums using something flexible such as stretchy cotton or old stockings (wire or plastic twine tends to cut into the stem and doesn’t flex in the wind). Stake or tie up tall flowers, such as delphiniums and gladioli, too.
Ideally get and stay on top of weeds this month, but if you don’t have the time to weed properly just snipping off seedheads will help stop them colonising your whole garden while you are away.
Water deeply and often this month, and if you get a good fall of rain then lay a mulch of compost, bagged mulch, leaf mould, pea straw or aged manure to trap that moisture in the soil (if it doesn’t rain, lay mulch after you irrigate). Then finally if you can’t ask a neighbour to water (or even if you can!), then ask Santa for a timer and a sprinkler or soaker hose to keep things alive while you are away.
Plants in pots dry out extremely fast
It takes as little as a day in full sun for the soil in a pot to become bone dry. Small pots and black pots (which heat up more quickly) are particularly vulnerable. Many potting mixes can become hydrophobic – or actually start to repel water – if they dry out completely. So even if you are home for the holidays move outdoor plants in pots into partial shade, water deeply, mulch heavily and sit pots in saucers to act as water reservoirs.