MONTY’S MONTH
WHAT TO DO NOW | DECEMBER
Monty’s month
December weather is often the worst of
the year in that it is grey, wet, cold and
dank. However, if we get cold, frosty
weather then the garden can be
transformed. The mud is hard enough to
PHOTOS: MARSHA ARNOLD; JASON INGRAM
walk on, the air is bright and fresh and
the whole garden rimed and glittering
with frost; and suddenly all kinds of
winter jobs become possible, from
pruning to gathering crisp, semi-frozen
leaves. I try and gather all of our
Christmas decorations from the garden,
December 2020
Monty gathers
holly from the
hedges to make
Christmas
decorations for
the house the
natural way
taking holly from the hedges, where the
birds have not eaten all the berries, and
mistletoe from the increasingly large
bunches growing on the apple trees
in the orchard.
We make a wreath for the front door
from ivy gathered from and under the
trees in the wildlife garden. We also take
yew from the bit of hedge we can never
reach to prune properly, and for a week WATCH Monty’s video
guide to growing hyacinths at
or so over Christmas the midwinter
gardenersworld.com/how-to
darkness is lit by garden green.
gardenersworld.com 101