So you think December is an “off” month for gardening, eh? There’s actually plenty to keep gardeners busy this month and beyond – both mopping up from the 2024 season and getting a few things done in advance of 2025.

Here are a dozen items for the “off-season” to-do list:

1.) Plant indoor bulbs. Now’s the time to start amaryllis, paperwhite, pre-chilled hyacinth bulbs, and any other bulbs that you want to grow for inside color over winter. These are the ones you’ll find now in garden centers, ready to go into pots next to sunny windows.

2.) Water the “forced” bulbs. Some gardeners also “pot up” more traditional spring-flowering bulbs (tulips, daffodils, crocuses, etc.) with the aim of bringing them inside to force into bloom weeks before they’d normally bloom outside.

Pots chilling in the ground where they’ll get rain or melting snow should be fine, but if you’re storing pots in an unheated garage, covered window well, refrigerator, or similar no-rain spot, check regularly and add moisture as needed to keep the soil damp.

• Read George’s PennLive column on how to “force” bulbs into bloom early

3.) Check tender bulbs you’re storing inside over winter. A balancing act is needed to keep non-winter-hardy bulbs such as dahlias, cannas, and gladioli healthy in winter storage. You don’t want them to get too damp that they rot but not so dry that they shrivel.

Periodically check stored bulbs in their storage medium (sand, peat moss, sawdust, etc.) Replace any medium that’s wet, and slightly dampen any medium that’s gone bone-dry.

4.) Think seeds. Inventory your seeds left over from the 2024 season, and make a list of what new ones you’ll need to buy or order for next year’s gardens. Seed vendors are already filling orders.

• Read George’s column on how to get “stubborn” seeds to sprout

5.) Targeted pruning. Now that the leaves are off the trees (signaling plants are dormant for winter), take advantage of any decent winter-weather days to prune shade trees, fruit trees, and summer-flowering shrubs.

Wait until right after bloom, though, to prune spring-blooming trees and shrubs (dogwoods, redbuds, lilacs, azaleas, etc.) If you prune those now, you’ll cut off next season’s already-formed flower buds.

6.) “Heave” check. Have soil freezes and thaws pushed the rootballs of any of your plants partially out of the ground?

Tamp them back down ASAP before those exposed roots dry. This “heaving” is especially common on first-year plants that haven’t had a chance to fully root.

7.) Edge the beds. Use a spade, half-moon edging tool, power edger, or even a long-handled ice chopper to carve neat edges around your garden beds. Leave an inch or two lip to catch next spring’s mulch.

Winter’s soft ground (when it’s not frozen) comes up easily and keeps the lawn from encroaching into the beds.

Compost the removed pieces or use them as sod to repair bare spots elsewhere in the lawn.

8.) Water the outdoor pots. Whenever the soil is dry and unfrozen, water any evergreens you’re growing outside in pots all year long.

Evergreens continue to lose moisture all winter through their leaves and can use the dampness in the root zone to replenish the losses.

9.) Pull weeds. Yank weeds that you didn’t already dispatch in fall as well as any winter annual weeds that have recently germinated (henbit, hairy bittercress, deadnettle, chickweed, creeping speedwell, etc.)

Just because poison ivy has dropped its leaves, though, doesn’t mean you can pull it off trees bare-handed. The oil in the stems is still very active all year long, and you can get a skin rash even in December or January by handling leafless poison ivy plants.

10.) Pull the dead annuals. If you didn’t already do it, yank cold-killed vegetables and annual flowers and add them to the compost pile.

Do the same with any ornamental kale and cabbage that you planted for fall color once they turn to mush.

11.) Chip the prunings. Use or rent a chipper-shredder and chop up that pile of yard prunings, cut-down ornamental grass, and other yard waste.

Compost the vegetative material and use the woody chippings as mulch over bare beds.

12.) Weather- and animal-proof. If you didn’t already do it last month, erect burlap barriers around winter-vulnerable plants to protect them from cold wind (especially marginally hardy broadleaf evergreens) and get your fencing and/or repellents in place to guard against deer damage.