I have been scratching my head trying to figure out what to write for my mid December blog and I realize part of the problem is that I don’t do much gardening this time of year. Late December is my rest time.  By January I am getting into pruning fruit trees and waiting for the first warm spell to plant some peas.  But I like to do nothing right now.  I sit looking out my window at the Persimmon and Cherry imagining the pruning I want to do but I like to wait a little longer to get going on that.  I agree with Wendy that I like to leave my perennials a little ragged for a bit for the wild life to hide in.  I usually do prune all my perennials back in January and February though. 

I see people have been using this amazingly dry and warm weather to get an early start on pruning, I like to let the plants settle into a more dormant state before I get started, but there is probably no harm in starting now.  There are lots of leaves to deal with and you can think about integrating them into your compost in small doses or using them as mulch. 

When we have these dry Decembers you need to keep an eye on plants drying out. Plants that aren’t well mulched get pretty dry, I have been watering my vegetables and newly planted perennials.  Anything in pots and raised beds dries out fast.  I am ready for a good rain to give everything a good soak. 

The best thing about this dry fall we have had, is it keeps us out in the garden cleaning up and getting the garden put into winter mode.  If it starts raining early I sometimes don’t get out and clean up all the summer crops.  But when it stays this nice I have the chance to pull everything out, compost it all, weed the paths, mulch around perennials and winter crops and sheet mulch areas for planting in the spring.  Makes the spring a lot easier.  

If you haven't taken the time yet to reflect on your 2011 garden, take some time now before it all becomes a blur.  What did you have too much of and what do you want more of,  what varieties did well,  did early planting help?  or do you wish you had planted earlier.  I keep track of the number of plants I grow to track what amounts gave us the amount of food we wanted.   I know this year I did not plant enough kale and we do not have enough to feed us in these winter months.  I had too many beets though for our families consumption- though they did great!   Write it down and eventually you will have good sense of what works best for you and your family's needs.  

So I encourage all you gardeners to take a rest, enjoy the shortest days of the year, reflect on the last year and get a few good seed catalogs to dream about your 2012 garden.