The first thing you notice in December on a UK allotment is the quiet. The after-work rush has gone, the evenings have slipped away, and even the robins seem to speak in whispers rather than full-throated song. It’s easy to look at a muddy, half-finished plot and think, “Right. That’s it until spring.”

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But December doesn’t have to be a dead month. It can be a softer, slower chapter – a time for looking after your soil, starting or tending compost, fixing small problems before they become big ones, and giving Future You a kinder spring.

This isn’t the sort of list that assumes you have endless dry days and boundless energy. These are gentle winter jobs for real UK plots: tasks you can do in half an hour with a woolly hat on and a thermos by the gate.

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1. Put the Plot to Bed (Without Making It Bare)

There’s a big difference between “putting the plot to bed” and stripping it completely. In December, the aim is to tidy things up just enough that beds aren’t chaotic – while still leaving structure, roots and seedheads where they’re doing something useful.

Start with a light tidy

• Remove plants that are truly finished – yellowing, slumping, clearly past their best.
• Leave anything still feeding wildlife – teasel, sunflowers, fennel and seedheads that birds are picking over.
• Snip at soil level instead of yanking roots out where you can. Roots left in the ground help soil structure and become food for worms and microbes.

If you’ve got big sprawls of spent annuals, chop them into smaller pieces and either lay them on the soil as a light mulch or add them to the compost heap (more on that in a moment).

Add a simple winter mulch

December is a lovely moment to protect bare soil from winter rain, wind and compaction. You don’t need anything fancy:

• Plain cardboard (no plastic tape, no glossy ink) laid flat on weeded beds.
• A layer of compost or well-rotted manure over the top.
• Bagged-up leaves from paths and lawns, either directly on the bed or saved for leaf mould.

If you have a compost heap that’s nearly ready, this is a satisfying time to spread the results of the year’s peelings and prunings over your beds. On chalky or light soils, it makes a visible difference by spring.

Don’t worry if every bed isn’t perfectly mulched. Even covering one or two high-use areas – your brassica bed, the spot you’ll put beans next year – is a solid December win.

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2. Compost, Leaves and “Future Soil”

December is peak “future soil” season. Every bag of leaves, every bucket of wilted plants, every torn-up cardboard box is essentially a pre-paid delivery of better beds next year.

Check or start a compost bin

If you already have a heap or bin, fork it over if the weather is kind. Turning introduces air, mixes wetter and drier layers, and can give a sluggish heap a new lease of life.

If you’ve been meaning to start composting properly, December is a very good time to finally set up a decent-sized compost bin (#ad). A 300L model is big enough for real-life kitchen scraps and prunings without taking over the whole plot, and by this time next year you’ll be spreading your own dark, crumbly compost on the beds instead of buying bags.

Bag up leaves for leaf mould

Those piles of soggy leaves on paths and grass? They’re not a nuisance; they’re leaf mould in waiting. It’s one of the simplest, lowest-effort soil improvers you can make.

• Rake leaves into piles and scoop them into old compost sacks or sturdy bin bags.
• Poke a few holes in the bags for air and drizzle the leaves with water if they’re very dry.
• Stack the bags in a quiet corner of the plot and forget about them for a year.

Next winter, you’ll have a lovely, crumbly material to use as a mulch around fruit bushes, on pots or mixed into seed compost.

What to put in – and what to skip

Good December compost ingredients:

• Chopped-up annual plants and prunings.
• Vegetable peelings and tea bags (plastic-free).
• Shredded cardboard and egg boxes.
• Coffee grounds (from home or the office).

Things to keep out or go very gently with:

• Cooked food, meat and dairy – these attract rats.
• Large branches (they’ll take years).
• Thick roots of perennial weeds – better to dry them out or bin them.

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3. What You Can Still Plant in December (UK Reality Check)

There’s a lot of bravado online about winter sowing. In real UK conditions – especially on a windy allotment – December is more about a few strategic plantings than starting the whole year early.

Garlic and broad beans

• Garlic is often happiest going in between October and December. As long as your soil isn’t frozen solid or completely waterlogged, you can still tuck cloves into a well-prepared bed.
• Autumn-sown broad beans can go in now in milder areas. In colder, exposed plots you might prefer to sow them in modules under cover and plant out in late winter.

Space them generously, label them well (winter weather eats labels for breakfast) and, if your plot is windy, consider short runs rather than long rows so they don’t get flattened.

Under cover: salads and hardy greens

If you have a small plastic greenhouse, cold frame or even a few deep containers at home, you can sow:

• Hardy winter salads and oriental greens.
• Spring onions for an early crop.
• Spinach and chard for cut-and-come-again leaves.

They’ll grow slowly, but you’ll thank yourself in late winter when you’re snipping fresh leaves instead of buying limp bags of salad.

And if the weather – or your energy – says “no planting, thank you”, that’s fine. Planning counts too.

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4. Sheds, Paths and Practical Fixes

December is also “quiet maintenance month” – the time for small jobs that don’t look glamorous on Instagram, but make a huge difference to how pleasant your plot feels from January onwards.

Give your shed a winter check-up

Take ten minutes to investigate your shed with a mug of something hot in hand:

• Look for drips and dark patches on the ceiling after rain – often a sign the felt is failing.
• Check hinges, locks and windows for stiffness or gaps where draughts and water sneak in.
• Have a quick look at the floor – any sagging boards or soft patches?

If this is the year you finally upgrade your shed, spend a quiet evening with a tape measure and this guide to choosing the right shed size, material and base, then browse the latest editor’s picks for UK sheds. A bit of homework now saves a lot of bad language on delivery day.

For extra cheer, you can also look at quick ways to style your shed frontage in the spring – a mental reward for getting the unglamorous winter checks done.

Sort out swampy paths

If you find yourself skating along a muddy trench every time you walk up the plot, December is a good moment to improve the paths, even in a small way:

• Lay a few spare slabs you might have at home.
• Use woodchip if your site offers it – it’s not perfect, but it’s better than ankle-deep mud.
• Mark out narrower paths if your current layout is just… “everywhere is path”.

You don’t have to redesign the whole plot. One firm, well-drained route from gate to shed – and from shed to water butt – makes winter allotment visits much less of an ordeal.

Look after tools now, thank yourself later

Before you lock up, choose one small tool task:

• Wipe mud off spades and forks; dry them so they don’t rust.
• Quickly sharpen and oil secateurs.
• Hang tools up rather than leaving them leaning where damp creeps in.

None of this has to be perfect. The point is simply that you’re slowly nudging the plot towards “cared for” rather than “abandoned until April”.

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5. Plan Next Year with a Mug in Hand

One of the best December jobs doesn’t technically require you to be on the allotment at all. It’s the moment where you gather this year’s scribbles, seed packets and half-formed ideas and start sketching the bones of next year’s plan.

If you’ve already got a copy of the Danbury & Lovejoy Almanac: Winter Quarter 2026 (#ad), bring it up to the plot or curl up with it afterwards at home. Use the winter prompts to note what worked, what sulked and what you want more of.

Make a rough bed sketch

• Draw simple rectangles for each bed – it doesn’t need to be remotely artistic.
• Write what grew there this year, and circle anything that did especially well.
• Roughly rotate families (brassicas, roots, legumes, etc.) so you’re not growing the same things in the same place year after year.

This doesn’t lock you into a formal crop rotation scheme; it just gives you a calm starting point instead of making decisions on the first mild day in March with a queue at the garden centre tills.

Audit your seed box

Before you start filling online baskets, tip out your seed tin and have a realistic look at what you already own.

• Group packets into “definitely still in date”, “probably fine” and “this is from another century”.
• Highlight anything you loved this year and want to repeat.
• Make a short, focused list of gaps rather than an impulsive essay.

When you do place an order, try to add something that genuinely suits your plot – if you’re on chalky soil, for example, our guide to gardening on chalk has gentle suggestions for plants that thrive instead of merely tolerating it.

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6. Tiny Rituals to Make December Visits Lovely

Finally, give yourself a few small rituals that make winter allotment visits feel like a treat rather than a punishment.

Bring a thermos and something comforting

A hot drink makes a huge difference when you’re trying to persuade yourself out of the car. If you’re on a slow-cooking kick, you could even bring a little hot lunch with you:

• Batch a stew or pulled pork from our slow cooker guide or apple-cider pulled pork recipe.
• Ladle it into a good food flask so it stays hot while you potter.

If you haven’t yet chosen a slow cooker that suits your household, our Crock-Pot 6.5L Slow Cooker review walks through the real pros and cons.

Think in 20–30 minute jobs

On dark weekdays, keep expectations very low. Aim for one tiny thing:

• Turn the compost heap once.
• Mulch just one bed.
• Stack a few bags of leaves.
• Wipe down and hang up two tools.

That’s it. You’re allowed to go home after 20–30 minutes knowing the plot is slightly better than you found it.

Notice the good bits

If December feels bleak, try literally listing three nice things before you leave: a robin following your fork, the first daffodil shoots, the way the shed light glows in the dusk. It sounds small, but it anchors you to the quiet pleasures of the season.

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Looking After Your Future Self

December allotment jobs aren’t about hustling; they’re about looking after your future self with a handful of small, thoughtful actions.

Turn waste into compost and leaf mould. Protect bare soil where you can. Fix the leaky bits of the shed. Make a simple sketch of next year’s beds. Bring a thermos, keep visits short and let the plot be something that adds to your life rather than nags at it.

If you’d like regular nudges like this – plus new guides from The Garden & Allotment and the rest of Danbury & Lovejoy – you can join the newsletter here. And for more garden inspiration, have a wander through The Garden & Allotment archive next time the kettle’s on.