Gardening jobs for December

Propagate fruit bushes – Take hardwood cuttings of currants, gooseberries, figs and mulberries.Put them somewhere they can stay for a year undisturbed.

Make use of leaves – Allow leaves to stay on borders to act as a mulch to protect the soil from weathering.

Net brassicas to stop pigeons destroying your crop. Use upturned flower pots to prevent the supports from piercing the netting.

Prune deciduous shrubs such as berberis, flowering currants, wiegelia,philadelphus and deutzia. Thin them out by removing a few branches at ground level.

Get some festive colour in the garden using evergreen plants with variegated foliage or berries, such as aucuba, euonymus, skimmia or holly.

Plan your crops – go through your seed packets and catalogues, then start planning next year’s crops and flowers. NB old seeds have low viability so check the date on the packet and buy new if necessary.

Trim apples and pears – cut out dead , diseased and damaged wood. Opening up the branch structure will make it easier to pick next year’s crop.

Start forcing rhubarb, either in the greenhouse or outdoors. Use a terracotta forcing pot or upturned dustbin.

Boost your veg flavour – leave your parsnips in the ground until needed, or lift and then bury them in a shalow trench until needed. They taste sweeter after a frost.

Grow your own pollution barrier. Plant a hedge of pollution filtering evergreens such as Cotoneaster franchetti, yew or Thuga plicata if you live on a busy road.