December is the month when our gardens take a back seat as we are all distracted by the Festive Season. However, it’s a great time to plan for the spring, plant the last of those bulbs you have been meaning to get in the ground and give the garden a generally good tidy up. Spreading a bit of mulch on your borders will do wonders for the health of your soil and also make it all look fresh, tidy and ready for those Xmas Guests.

Plant of The Month: Holly & Ivy

For those of us who celebrate and decorate for Christmas, holly and ivy leaves in wreaths and garlands may be among the first signs that the festive season has arrived. Holly and ivy have mythologies dating back thousands of years, in fact, the history of holly and ivy at Christmas dates all the way back to the Romans. In those early times the leaves were believed to have protective powers. Over the centuries, the symbolism of holly and ivy Christmas decorations would continue to change, representing both prosperity and abundance too.

The prickly evergreen holly we see on Christmas cards and within our landscape is English holly, Ilex aquifolium and the The ivy you’re most likely to see growing nearby is English ivy (Hedera helix). Both will grow happily in our gardens here in sussex but there are many other varieties that may be better suited to the garden setting.

Historically, holly represented the male—upright and prickly—and ivy, with its clinging habit, the female. Ivy twined around the holly tree showed the male and female principles in one balanced, evergreen package. Because both were green at a time when everything else turned brown, people brought holly and ivy inside during the long nights of the winter solstice. As Christianity gained traction in Europe, the pagan custom of using holly and ivy was absorbed into decorating for Christmas.

Those wishing to grow Holly or Ivy may initially be drawn to their beautiful ornamental foliage however, they are a valuable food source and shelter to wildlife too. All hollies are dioecious, with the male and female flowers on separate plants. If you want the berries then you would need to choose a male plant for every three to five female plants to esnure a good crop of berries to decorate your christmas wreath.

When they are both fully grown, holly and ivy make impressive winter evergreens while Ivy can be a little invasive at times, when kept in check in can provide you with a carpet of interesting foliage in areas of the garden where nothing else will grow. Below are some examples of Good Garden Cultivars if you fancy adding some winter sturcture to your garden:

• Ilex aquifolium 'Handsworth New Silver'
• Hedera colchica 'Dentata Variegata'
• Hedera colchica 'Sulphur Heart'
• Ilex aquifolium 'Argentea Marginata'
• Hedera helix 'Glacier'
• Ilex aquifolium 'Madame Briot'
• Hedera helix 'Parsley Crested'
• Ilex × altaclerensis 'Golden King'
• Hedera helix 'Ivalace'
• Ilex × altaclerensis 'Lawsoniana'

Jobs to do this month include:
Ornamental Garden:
• Give the borders one last tidy before Christmas by removing any debris, leaves etc.
• Check newly planted shrubs for wind rock (loosened soil around base) after strong winds firming soil.
• Avoid any pruning when frost or snow is forecast.
• Replenish birdfeeders as soon as they run out.
• Plant winter flowering shrubs like daphne and sarcococca.
• Prune acer, betula before mid-December to avoid bleeding cuts.
• Mulch if the weather is still mild.

Vegetable Garden:
• Harvest winter veg like sprouts etc.
• Clear any remaining plant debris and compost.
• Prune free standing apples, pears, currants and gooseberries.
• Do not prune stone fruit until spring to avoid silver leaf disease.
• Prune grape vines by mid-December.
• Continue to plant fruit bushes etc.
• Divide and re plant rhubarb.
• Lag outdoor taps and pipes to avoid them freezing.
• Ventilate greenhouse on mild days.