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What to Plant This Month- December
 
December hails the beginning of our bare-root planting season! It's also a good time for first and repeat-plantings of the cool season veggies listed below.
BARE-ROOT: Bare-root plants are typically produced more economically than containerized plants, and that savings is often passed on to you! Look for good buys on fruit and nut trees and shrubs, landscape trees and shrubs, artichokes, asparagus, berries and roses. To help you select fruit varieties, visit the Dave Wilson Nursery website. Preeminent wholesale grower, Dave Wilson Nursery, supplies fruit, nut and berry varieties to local retail nurseries. Also see University of California's Backyard Orchard Page and Peaceful Valley Farm Supply's bare-root selection.
LIVING CHRISTMAS TREES: Sunset recommends looking for dwarf Alberta spruce, Aleppo pine, Colorado Blue spruce, giant sequoia, and Monterey pine.
ANNUALS: While not the ideal time, you can still plant cool-season annuals. Look for pansies, primrose, Iceland poppies, ornamental kale, forget-me-nots, snapdragon, sweet peas, stock and more. Looking for something out of the ordinary? Try Annie's Annuals (& perennials), sold through several local nurseries (click here for where to buy).
PERENNIALS: Cyclamen, tuberous members of the primrose family, are blooming now and many nurseries offer a wide selection. Cyclamen do best under an overhang where flowers won't become rain-spotted.
BULBS: If you didn't manage to get those bags of spring-flowering bulbs planted, do it now. Better late than never... Certain bulbs are commonly forced into bloom indoors right around now. Try paperwhite narcissus, amaryllis, crocus, hyacinths and more. Click here for more on forcing bulbs indoors.

VEGETABLES: Plant transplants of broccoli, garlic, lettuce, onions, horseradish, peas, radish, rhubarb, and spinach.

See the Yearly Vegetable Planting Calendar  for a great overview of what to plant and when to plant it.

Also see: UC VRIC Table 2: Vegetable Gardening at a Glance: How to Plant and Store (pdf file, requires Adobe  Reader)
LAWNS: Even though it's cold and mucky out there, you can still install sod lawns this month (if you must). Don't bother with seed until spring.

LANDSCAPE TREES: While not the ideal time (earlier in fall is ideal), you can still plant landscape trees, weather permitting. Visit the Sacramento Tree Foundation's website for the lowdown on Sacramento area trees. Also see my picks and the City of Sacramento's Tree Planting Guide. If you're a SMUD customer, you may qualify for free shade trees! Click here to see what trees are being offered the Sacramento Shade Program and how to get them.

Plant This Month Archives:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November