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You can't beat a real Christmas tree, but fallen needles and bare branches don't look particularly festive. Find out how to avoid Christmas tree needle drop, below.Christmas treeChristmas tree clampBucketSawSecateursDecemberWhen buying the tree

-35 mm Geotrupes I used to find, but pretty enough under a hand lens. Spider webs are not long-lived, so this specimen must have been on the wing in mid-December. Fairly unusual I thought.Even more unusual, Saturday I found the same species walking about

.It's so rewarding to see the plants all lined up, waiting for their May debut in the best flower show in the world. This week we moved the borage that was sown at the end of December. It's fortunate that borage is a hardy annual, because within a few days

to a warm, sunny patio. Colder autumn weather will finish off plants grown outside, but last year I was still picking fruits grown under glass in December.Of course, when it comes to chillies you must decide how much heat you can take. 'Anaheim

and produce flower after flower until about early December. Perhaps we should be growing more of them. Good garden varieties include 'Clara Curtis' (pink), 'Emperor of China' (double pink) and 'Wedding Day' (white). You can read more about chrysanthemums here.

and the outer brown layers will fall away, revealing silver discs, and allowing you to collect seed. Stems can be cut and brought indoors for decoration, or just pushed into borders, to add interest and plug gaps. Even on dull December days the seed

The same thing happens every year. I buy my bulbs in good time, and then don't make time to plant them! I've got a huge bag of tulips and other bulbs to be planted, but it will soon be December.Other things got in the way during October, and then I

of a sort of open cast mine in the middle of one of my borders really didn't matter that much. Had they done it in June then I would be spitting nails and weeping bitter tears, but in early December? Who cares? Most of the herbaceous stuff has died back

recording of a Christmas Special edition of Gardeners' Question Time (broadcast on Sunday 27 December 2009), at which John had been on top form.I'd been invited to join John, Bob Flowerdew and Pippa Greenwood at the Garden Museum near Lambeth Palace

or door for a limited period, while still allowing it to close. Don't plug into outdoor sockets if the transformer will be exposed.DecemberWinteran hour2 x 50cm-tall box cones8 x pink cyclamen8 x Senecio cineraria2 x 32cm Fibreclay square faux