(Photograph by Daniel Starrason)

Here are 8 things you can do for the garden in December:

1. Plant bulbs until the ground freezes or during a thaw.

2. Put burlap on stakes for winter protection of broadleaf evergreens or shrubs like roses that you want to protect.

3. Apply winter mulches to bulbs, perennials, strawberries or shrubs AFTER the ground freezes.

4. Divide spring and summer blooming clumping perennials (Those that are fall bloomers can be divided in the spring or season opposite to bloom time.)

5. Care for indoor plants – December is the lowest light intensity for house plants and would be happy with extra light.

6. Start dropping hints for garden gifts you would like to receive during the holiday season. About.com claims they know the top 15 gifts for gardeners.

7. Start writing to plant catalogue companies to request their 2008 catalogues. The Dave’s Garden site claims they are the “most complete directory of gardening sources” listing more than 6,122 gardening vendors that they rate either positively or negatively.

8. Get out your Horticulture books and on freezing days, read and dream away. If there are books that you want, you can buy them or take them out of your library to see if you want to own them. Most libraries have inter-library loan so that you could even ask if they will get a book that you find interesting from the list at Amazon.com. Then if you love the book, you can buy it.

Some of the great gardening book publishers are:

Timber Press

Sterling Publishing

Ortho Books

Rodale Books

Sunset Books

and the gardening books from DK Publishing Co.

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