Garden Journal 2023
Each month Paul shares insights from his own garden here. From pruning roses, to tackling slugs, Paul’s gardening advice and anecdotes are a valuable read for any novice, or expert gardener.
January
The quick cold blasts of last month have left their mark, but while it is tempting to search out damaged plants, cut back dead sections and dig out those that seem beyond the point of recovery, it is best to leave plants until spring to be sure new shoots do not develop at the base. A case in point in my garden is Melianthus. This year, its towering stems of exotic foliage have been burnt away, but I am resisting the temptation to cut them back, as this would allow cold further into the plant. Instead, I am simply waiting to see new signs of life on branches and at the base, which I know will come in the warmer days of March.
Another reason to leave plants well alone is that there is usually a cold snap in February. Open wounds, even on dormant plants, can allow cold in and cause them to die back further.
If you have not planted your spring bulbs due to frost or wet weather, now you really need to find a good dry day to plant them in the ground. Or, if time really is running out, put your bulbs in pots and place them around your door to make your home more welcoming in late winter and early spring as they start to bloom. I have planted bulbs, and will be planting more bulbs this month, but it really is the last chance saloon.
Signs of life are emerging this month from the Winter Aconite; its little yellow flowers find their origin in Greek and Roman mythology. According to the myth, Medea attempted to murder Theseus by tainting his wine with the poisonous saliva of Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guarded the underworld. Hercules dragged Cerberus out from the underworld, and the light of day upset Cerberus. While barking his protest, his poison saliva fell on the path around him. The saliva hardened into stones in the soil, and from those stones Winter Aconite grew. The Greeks called the flowers aconite, from the word ‘akone’ meaning ‘whetstone’, and it is true Eranthis is a very poisonous yet beautiful plant.
The China blue flowers of Scilla are one of the first welcome sights from late January. Squills or bluebells are a common sight of European woodlands, growing up to 30cm high and sometimes becoming invasive. The smaller and more unusual alpine Scilla, such as Scilla mischtschenkoana, comes into flower much earlier and has brilliant blue flowers roughly 10cm high; you can imagine they travelled back from the high deserts of the South Caucasus and Iran after being viewed against the golden sands of spring.
The most common small Scilla is Scilla siberica, the Siberian squill, which for such a small bulb has an impressive range from southwestern Russia to the Caucasus and Turkey. It is not native to Siberia, but instead was named by the British botanist Adrian Haworth. The genus Haworthia, a group of succulents from Mozambique and Namibia, is named after him rather curiously.
Let’s hope the cold spell doesn’t last and we soon see these glories of colour return to our gardens.
February
To start this has been a most odd winter so far, cold snaps, strong damaging winds and enough rain to make the plants simply float away. It is in all quite depressing and without wanting to add further flies to the ointment my only hope is we escape a severe frost during blossom season like 2021, as that year I ended up with no fruit at all in the garden.
Well, moan over its far to say that at least the wet soil made planting bare-root hedging and moving some trees much easier than normal and I doubt they noticed in the slightest. Bare-root season winds up this month so if you are quick you can find some plants still available for any last minute projects. Inspired by a friend my last minute project was to purchase 27 hornbeam whips to create in about ten years time, a stilted hedge which will enclose part of the garden from winter winds whilst keeping the view to the neighbouring fields open.
The one down side to the so far mild winter is the volume of weed seedlings which are sprouting and enjoying the damp in full knowledge I cannot get out into the borders and remove them. But rest assured as soon as the soil is dry enough to work I will be out removing as much as possible including irritating seedlings and this by far removes the amount of weeding through late spring and summer.
If you have made new borders and are disheartened by the volume of weeds so not despair it is normal, once you expose the soil a layer of dormant seeds always germinate and over the course of the first eighteen months there is an explosion in weeds, keep on top of it and you will be fine. Here in my garden which is entering its third year of life I have a lot of spaces where weeds are serious competition to the new plantings I am making but I know that the balance with my intervention will switch over time.
It might be a little late in the day to talk about Christmas trees but if like me you bought a potted tree then now is a good time to do one of two things.
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If you left it in the pot in was bought in, now is perfect time to remove it from the pot and replant into a bigger ideally clay pot with a good layer of drainage and soil based compost to replicate its natural environment. Weight down the root balls, its very top heavy remover foliage wise and do not disturb for the next few months but keep an eye on watering.
2. If you have taken your potted tree outside and either planted into the ground or already replanted it then towards the end of the month give it feed with Fish, Blood and Bone from the garden centre.
In both cases the tree which I am going to bet is in the family Picea will naturally shed some needs over march and April, so don’t worry its not dead, and you will see new growth in May to June.
If you have kept your tree in a pot it will happily come inside again for a visit over December next year and if you have planted it outside you may have to wait a few years to string up the lights but either way a little care will reward you with a very happy tree.
One last thought on Februaries gardening calendar, don’t forget as soon as the snowdrops have finished flowering towards the end of the month you can safely dig them up and divide large clumps into small groups to give more impact in years to come. There will also be lots of ‘in the green’ sales of snowdrops which is the best way to buy them as they don’t enjoy being dried out and sold dormant.
March
I have to say this has been a funny old year for the garden so far. It started cold and even snowed at the right moment, before we were lulled by a ‘fools spring’ of a February with unusually warm weather, before cold descended again. To top it off, prolonged periods of no rain made the soil as hard as a rock and ensured winter container watering, which feels a little wrong.
Dry and cold weather is often better for marginally tender plants and evergreens, which is good news as frost and rain (our more traditional weather) tend to destroy roots through the freezing and absorption of water.
Traditionally, March is the month when sowing direct into prepared vegetables can take place; as a teenager I had an allotment which I was very proud of. I can remember reading the packet of vegetable seeds religiously and would, on 1 March, sow my radish, beetroot, hardier lettuce and spring onions with anticipation and wait…and wait!
The experience of gardening for a few years since tells me now that my geographic location, the season and soil will all have a hand to play and determine if my seeds will germinate. I now know that the ideal is to start working the soil and preparing the beds at the start of March and sow later. The results are often better, there is no stunting of growth, and my fingers are certainly not as numb.
If you have a cold frame, you can sow many hardy perennials, which like a bit of cold and rough to break down their seed coats in early March (and sometimes earlier outside) and by late April have little plants ready to be carefully potted on. Remember, unlike annuals which complete their lifecycle in one year, perennials are often slow to bulk up from a seedling to a plant which flowers. It is a slower process than cuttings and requires a little extra space – either by potting on and caring for them on a hard standing or creating a nursery bed in your potager or semi-shady spot, where they can bulk up before being planted out into the border and left to fend for themselves.
Nearly every autumn, I buy a lot of perennial seed, mainly species and, like most gardeners, things which spark my interest through their name or the nursery’s cleverly teasing description. By the time spring arrives, I am almost always behind on my sowing. My advice is: life happens and if it’s not the exact moment the packet says, still give it a go and you may just have to wait longer for results. Make sure you have long-lasting weather-proof labels, as the seed can wait in the ground and surprise you the following spring with a little, ‘hello did you forget me?’
March is also the month when there is more birdsong, activity and a sense of warming anticipation. It is now that when my dog Netta has her post-walk groom we donate her fur to the birds who gleefully take it away to help in the nest-building process. If you don’t have a suitable Netta to donate what feels like an endless supply of fur, then at least put out some food, grains or even simple things like an apple on a spike to give the birds an energy boost as they fly around looking for house-building materials.
Whatever March throws at us, we are on the home-run to spring and can rest safe in the knowledge that all our work over winter will pay off in a matter of weeks!
April
Think of April and most people will conjure up images of roast lamb and Easter. Ask a gardener, and it is the month of spring at last! Bulbs are in full swing, there is blossom on the trees, the evenings are longer, and the days are getting warmer.
Spring has truly sprung, and plants are showcasing incredible amounts of growth and body. This exuberance of growth leaves gardeners with both a new job and an opportunity. The first task is to ensure staking has been completed for the summer to come. If you get your staking in place in spring, plants can grow through and it becomes disguised and ‘invisible’. If you leave this job until later, plants can have the double appearance of looked strangled and battered from collapsing and being damaged by wind or growth weight.
The second part of the task is creating new plants for free. The young sappy growth on herbaceous perennials is ripe for soft tip cuttings – taking the tips of the new growth and making cuttings which are roughly 8cm long. Using rooting powder and a mix of perlite and vermiculite, you can make hundreds of new plants for free. At this time of year, the new cuttings will root within three weeks and some of the newly created plants such as Dahlia will even flower in the same year.
Other plants, such as hardy geraniums and Rudbeckia, can still be split during April as the weather is ideal for new root development. This tried and tested way of making new plants is also beneficial to the original clump. Many herbaceous perennials spread outwards like an expanding circle, leaving a dead centre point. Every two to three years, it is worth inspecting, digging and ruthlessly dividing larger clumps to create new vigorous and healthy plants, which will produce more flower and growth.
Don't forget, you can sow a myriad of vegetable and annual flower seeds during April. I tend to grow a few annuals which fill spaces in between herbaceous perennials and add vibrancy. Annuals like Cosmos and English Marigold are easy and can be sown direct. Lightly hand fork over the spaces and cast the seed. They will germinate, root and develop much faster than those in seed trays, with the bonus of being hassle free. If you only have a small space, so are ruling out vegetables, don’t forget that lettuce, chard, and evening climbing beans do really well in containers, so even a small courtyard can be productive.
For me, April is a good time to focus on getting the garden ready for spring. It also comes with the pressure of knowing I am largely away all of May building our RBC Brewin Dolphin Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. This means I need to ensure my garden will tick over with minimum care, while also constantly talking with our contractors and plant growers for the garden. If you haven’t already, you can read a little about this year’s inspiration and some of the fantastic artisans we are working with on the creation of the garden here. From slate hand quarried in Blaenau Ffestiniog using techniques developed over one years ago to our oak framed building handmade in Herefordshire, and ceramics from an artisan deep in the Loire Valley, this garden is very much inspired by knowledge and artisan creation.
Chelsea aside, I hope April will not pass too quickly. The year is a quarter of the way through already, and it is good to take time just to admire the new growth and listen to the garden’s rhythm of time, which does not always follow ours.
May
I often think that spring has a smell – sometimes you catch a hint of it in the breeze in April, but it is in May, when spring turns into summer, that you can smell it in the air for the first time. May brings a soft slow green push as leaves continue to break, seeds germinate and the early spring flowers of primrose and daffodil, which bravely fight the cold air, make way for herbaceous geraniums, alliums, tulips and some flower shrubs such as lilac.
By the end of this month, the cold persistence of March will be a distant memory and strawberries will be practically ready to eat from the plants. In all this romantic bucolicism you may ask, “Where is the hardship?” Well, I am going to tell you!
May can be a sly toad. Warm T-shirt-inducing days can tempt us to do too much too fast. Despite the warmth on your skin, don’t be tempted to go crazy planting out tender annuals, courgettes, tomatoes and mewling rooted cuttings. May has a chilled evening breeze and all your hard work could be lost in one of its sudden mood changes. The best thing is to wait and for some of us that wait could almost be into June. Patience is rewarded in the gardener’s world as waiting and planting at the right moment mean that plants grow stronger and faster than those suffering stunting, or worse, from exposed planting too early.
This lesson will mostly be learnt with the humble Dahlia, which dislikes the slightest sniff of a chill breeze. You can’t blame it – its native home is hot and tropical South America, which is a far cry from largely damp and grey England.
The other benefit of May is your weekly lawn mowing obligations. I tend to leave my lawn just slightly longer as if there’s a sudden draught it tends to be more resistant; the same can be said of heavy footfall areas as longer grass doesn’t run bare so quickly. Additionally, if you have large areas of grass to mow, think about whether you really need to cut it. Over a course of two or three years, you can develop a highly diverse meadow by reducing yourself to two cuts a year and provide a heaven for pollinators.
Once you have cut the grass, the clippings are often a problem for compost heaps and suffocate them, causing layers of undecomposed materials which cannot be reworked into the garden as good compost. There are three solutions. First, mix the grass clippings with cardboard – this will soak up the moisture, allowing both to break down. Second, use the cuttings as a mulch at the back of borders under shrubs and larger trees to suppress weeds – this can also be done on mewling planted areas but as a thinner ratio.
The third solution is more of a long-term production. I tend to give clippings to my chickens. They have a good old rummage through it and break it down with other vegetable waste. Once every three months, I skim the surface of their enclosure, gathering nicely churned debris and chicken waste to either apply directly to poor soils in my garden or onto the compost to enrich it. I figure they have to pay for their board and lodging like the rest of us, so they can do a little more work than making eggs. That said, I haven’t found a job for the dog as yet, so that’s something to work on.
I will be in London in May, making RBC Brewin Dolphin’s Main Avenue Garden, which you can read about here. We will be creating some exclusive content about the elements of the garden including its build, so wish us luck!
June
They don’t call it ‘Flaming June’ for nothing. After weeks of cold starts and cloudy days, June has started warmer than ever and with little rain. The best way to deal with the way our summers and springs are evolving, it seems, is to mulch.
I am a late convert to mulching, so for those of you who already mulch I know I am preaching to the converted. A thick layer of mulch – such as straw, composted bark, lawn clippings and even cardboard when first making planting beds (however unappealing it may look) – certainly reduces weeding and seedlings that have been transported in the wind. It also keeps the soil nice and humid, allowing for plants to develop and grow stronger while reducing watering.
I tend to use a mixture of lawn clippings for out-of-sight places, such as under shrubs and raspberries in the potager, and make my own mulch for the more high-value or visual areas. Making your own is easy and, for me, completes the cycle of the gardening year, allowing for nothing nutrient-based to leave the soil for very long.
At the end of the year, I cut back all of the herbaceous plants and directly put this semi-woody material through the chipper. I then add this to any small branches I have already chipped, mix them together and leave for the following year. Doing this this every year means I have two-year-old homemade compost/mulch to spread thickly on beds and borders. This replenishes nutrient levels in the soil while looking rather smart in the winter months when the garden is lean.
With the bumper growth of spring and some herbaceous plants not looking their best, don’t forget to pull out the old foliage of herbaceous poppies such as Papaver ‘Patty’s Plum’ and cut back hard-finished Alchemilla mollis and violets (unless you want chance seedings popping up this autumn). Early flowering annual poppies and nigella will be setting seed now, so don’t cut those back if you want continued blooms next year without the work of direct sowing.
After the Chelsea Flower Show, I came home with a haul of ill-gotten plant gains from the breakdown of many exhibits and show gardens. With show season marching all the way through summer, it’s a great opportunity to add plants to the garden, but completely the wrong point of the year for them to get established. Make sure the plants are well watered overnight and that the place you intend to plant has also been pre-watered to ensure the soil is ready and damp. After planting, water every day for at least two weeks and then as needed; this is the way cottage gardeners of old would move plants around the garden with minimal losses.
I started this journal entry by saying June was flaming and talking about ‘flames’ which use a lot of energy this month little strawberry plants will be producing delicious fruits, its exhausting so lastly don’t forget Once fruiting is over, cut back runners and tired foliage before feeding with a nice slow release slow-release granular food such as pelleted chicken manure or, if you prefer, a mixture of nettle and comfy leaf soup. Which you can see how to make in our videos.
Lastly why not not enjoy this video looking at the journey of this years RNC Brewin Dolphin garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Sow
July
Long summer days and a garden full of colour and foliage means we are at the pinnacle of the summer season. July is a plant lover’s month, not just because of the sheer volume of plants bursting into flower, but also because of the wealth of specialist nurseries and gardens open for us to visit. With sunny days in mind, here is a roundup of jobs which might make it onto your list this month.
Flowers & Cutting Garden
Many of us have biennial plants, which include beautiful yet prolific stars such as angelica and teasel. Now is a good time to thin them out and leave what you want where you want it. The young ‘thinnings’ can be potted on and given to gardening friends or at gardening clubs, so don't feel guilty about being ruthless. Biennials which have flowered already, such as honesty and sweet rocket, can be cleared out of the garden, and in the case of honesty be hung to dry for winter decorations.
With so many plants now in flower, you may feel like you really are running your own flower shop. But remember, plants like dahlia need lots of picking or the flowering stops. The same is true of annuals such as cosmos, cornflower and zinnia – these want naturally to set seed, so pick to help the flowering season lasts as long as possible.
Everyone asks about it too late in the season, but now is the time to prune back lavender. Prune hard to keep them fresh and bushy and, whilst you are out, have a tidy of perennials such as geranium who have grown leggy. You can start taking soft cuttings of tender perennials alongside aster and other sappy young growth on a host of late season perennials.
Lastly, now is the last chance to stake tall growing perennials. Next month always brings some wind, so this will help to minimise damage. Plants grown in containers need a good watering and feed, and montana-type clematis can be pruned now.
Vegetables & Home Grown
It is a bumper time of year for vegetables too. If you are an experienced hand, you will be harvesting a wealth of tasty salad crops alongside globe artichokes, drying herbs for winter use and starting to harvest peas and beans.
If you have grown squashes and courgettes, it’s a good idea to pinch off the growing tips to encourage branching and bushier plants, which will then yield more. Whilst pinching remember tomatoes benefit enormously from this as well. Where space allows, you can continue sowing salad leaves but also think about autumn crops. Sow kale such as ‘Nero di Toscana’ alternately in rows with faster crops such as radish and lettuce to have a fine harvest later on.
Basil can be sown in a warm sheltered spot now. Unlike the rest of the garden, to get the best crop never send the plant to bed wet! Other herbs such as sorrel and lovage need a drastic cut to the ground now if you want to continue having fine young leaves, or leave for rich seed structure over autumn.
Courgette fact
Some say this humble vegetable was Colombus’s first discovery. While it is true that the parent of the modern courgette has been with us since the 16th Century, the vegetable we know and love was bred in Italy in the second half of the 19th Century and didn't reach America as a crop until 1920! Now used throughout the world from Israel, up into Siberia and across to Alaska, in 2005 a survey found that it is the UK’s tenth most popular vegetable.
August
Summer is perhaps not quite as we imagined it would be back in the sunbaked months of May and June. Throughout July, more and more news of extreme weather surfaced: wildfires in Greece, the South of France, and Algeria; and freak hailstorms and huge downpours in Spain, Italy and Japan, to name a few.
The changes may seem sudden, but it is just that we avoided our gaze. Over the past few years, I have noticed a reaction to the changing climate among mature trees. In mid-summer, the stress of prolonged periods of no rain has caused them to shed their leaves early. Later in September, they flush a second crop of leaves using valuable energy which should be stored for the winter months. The result is that large mature trees appear to be ‘suddenly’ dying over winter.
Ultimately, this is not good news. A further depressing study shows that at current rates, most of the trees across northern France, in an upward swathe to Germany and all of the UK will not survive in 50 years’ time. In one generation, a complete change will take place in our landscape.
Now, more than ever, we need to be active in encouraging resilient tree planting in our gardens and within our local town, parish and county councils. This will not only help to absorb and cool the atmosphere but will also result in cleaner air in towns and cities. Sadly, throwing a few wildflower seeds at a field won’t work.
In our gardens, we have to be serious about water collection and run off, drought and management. I have collected a lot of water from my new roof this year, which is stored in ugly, but hidden, large tanks which I use to water the garden when needed. Many of us have driveways and other areas where three-dimensional design can help store and hide mitigation measures, such as suds tanks or reinforced storage containers for water to be recycled later; these do more than deal with an effect but also benefit our gardens. If you are a keen grower of vegetables or plants like dahlias, which require high amounts of water and feed, then collecting water is a beneficial part of gardening.
Another part of managing the changing climate is planting for your soil type and the weather pattern we have now. Lots of gardening advice from the 1970s and ‘80s is still being trotted out, but sadly this is woefully inaccurate now and needs to be abandoned and replaced with local knowledge and hands-on experience. Three decades ago, it would have been unheard of to see Cycas growing outside in winter in London, but this year I discovered avocado being grown and fruiting near the Barbican.
It seems heavy and frightening, but gardens are resilient and we will find ways to adapt and develop them to suit the challenges of the next decade and beyond. It will, however, be much easier if we are proactive to the changes rather than dragging our feet in denial.
September
September is traditionally a month which feels like summer but breathable. In the garden, it is a month of being able to start enacting plans you have bottled up all summer. From landscaping jobs to moving plants and taking lots of cuttings for next year, it’s a month of bounty for those looking to reconnect with the life of the garden.
Alongside this bounty we have created, nature provides lots of rewards. As well as apples, pears and quinces, don’t forget that the last of our cucumbers, courgettes and tomatoes can be harvested and preserved for the winter months. I am something of a traditionalist as I get older and have adopted living seasonally when it comes to food. Therefore, as an example, in my house you will not find tomatoes in winter. Instead, you will find bottled and preserved passata, which like quince jelly, jam, and pickled goods, is a way of eating food out of season which we have used for centuries. For me, this use of food allows the simple joy of the first moment ‘in season’ to exist – a pleasure which should not be underestimated.
This year, I will admit, has been a little odd, or perhaps it is the new normal. Extended periods of wet weather in some areas and long dry spells in others have put paid to our traditional seasonal notions. That said, for the next few years at least, September with its rich autumn colours will be the month of semi-ripe cuttings; this is a method of making new plants for free using growth from this year on plants such as penstemon and semi-woody perennials. Placing a simple cutting about 8cm in length with leaves removed into a mixture of 50/50 perlite and vermiculite, which can be used for years with hormone rooting agent, will yield new plants ready to pot by next spring.
If you don’t fancy the hassle, it’s also a good month for digging up established bulky perennials such as Aster and all its newly renamed derivatives, Rubeckia, Erigeron and other clump forming perennials, and splitting into two or three decent sized pieces for replanting. This gives sizeable new plants, especially if you are establishing new borders. It is also essential work for perennials over three years old as the centre of the plant tends to die out and this technique invigorates them for the next few seasons.
If you don’t want lots of new plants, then the excess can be further ‘cut’ into pot sized plants which you can give away or donate to a local garden project.
I actually have quite a lot of plans for my garden this autumn. It is now three years old and some spaces have worked well, whilst others are still to find themselves. Creating a garden is a long project, so I shall be editing some borders where I have noted gaps in the planting and redeveloping areas which have not worked so successfully. Inspired by our Chelsea garden, I have decided to create a wooden structure for storing wood and for making the sometimes messy transition from house to garden work better over winter. The oak building will be an open sided boot room come wood store, which I hope will keep things tidier this winter.
One of the main reasons for this is because the house runs on wood for heating over winter. Last year’s daily walk to the barn turned the grass into mud over winter and not only did it look messy, but it also took a long time to re-establish. These are sometimes the design decisions which take time to modify, and this is often one of the pleasures of looking at a house and garden with a long-term eye.
October:
It has certainly been an odd year when it comes to our traditional view of the seasons, with a hot June and July followed by heavy rain in August, and a mixed bag through September. At the Malvern Autumn Show, usually a feast of late autumn colour and tradition, some plants seemed to be having a second season while others we typically associate with the season were missing in their entirety.
A constant joy for me is planning and researching spring bulbs. Although they are for sale now in garden centres, I prefer to order from bulb specialists and have them arrive in November. This means that I can easily entice myself with endless lists, websites and visual combinations of bulbs I would like to try. Of course, like everyone, I have my favourites. Each year, I tend to grow tulips ‘Black Parrot’ and ‘Carnaval de Nice’ in containers with other muted colours, such as the glorious tulip ‘La Belle Époque’.
For me, as parrot tulips are very heavy in flower, they suit containers much more readily than being in the ground. In the borders, I prefer to have a more natural feel, therefore, I tend to keep garden space reserved for the Narcissus species and tulips such as the ‘sprengeri’, which spreads happily without assistance.
Of course, there are all the small bulbs too, but if I am honest, they never seem to work for me, and I have given up. Gardening should be easy, and I’m not so stubborn as to try to painfully grow things that don’t enjoy my garden and ultimately look miserable.
Bulbs aside, towards the end of the month I shall be doing some serious work in the garden. There are plenty of larger herbaceous perennials to divide and a lot of weeds that need attention due to me being away. Annual weeds really need removing before they can seed because otherwise, they disappear over winter and reappear with a bang in spring. Over-wintering weeds, such as bramble, nettle, and the dreaded teasels, can be dug out slowly over winter whilst you work on the borders, and that is exactly what I shall be starting this month.
On this, a quick note of what to do with the material once removed. If you shred wood weeds such as bramble and teasel, be sure not to put the seed head through the shredder. The seeds will survive and create a mass problem for the following year. Likewise, nettle roots and dandelion roots can be composted, but only after being left in a container of water for a few weeks to thoroughly rot them down – otherwise, you risk them rerooting and taking hold on your rich compost pile.
Lastly, as the leaves begin to fall, make a pen using chicken wire to store them over winter. I have been known to collect neighbours’ leaves and those in parks to store and mulch down to create an amazingly rich soil improve. Just be sure not to store them in sealed plastic bags; this can prove to be lethal to you when opened in a year’s time due to the bacteria that build up inside the bag.
Well, there is plenty to be doing, but do take time to reward yourself with a cup of tea, or stronger, and enjoy the season changing dramatically over the coming weeks.
November:
November is traditionally the month of change in gardening; not only is the air cooler, but the dew point makes for wet mornings. Traditionally, there will be some lighter frosts, but still good work-able days where being outside is still a pleasure and not a chore.
Most of us will be cutting back herbaceous plants, weeding out stubborn brambles alongside other unwanted plants, and giving borders a good mulch for winter this month. Whilst that can feel a little depressing, its only for a few months until spring and optimism can be maintained with new projects. From lifting and dividing herbaceous perennials to making new planting beds; or simply from restructuring and improving existing ones to taking easy hard wood cuttings – there is a lot of ‘promise’ that can be banked for the next gardening year.
If you are making hardwood cuttings, it really is one of the simplest things you can do with a host of woody deciduous shrubs. Simply cut relatively straight rods of pencil thickness from the existing shrub, ideally 20 centimetres long. In a prepared nursery bed, plunge each new cutting two thirds into the ground, making sure buds are facing up, not down. Leave them, even forget they exist, until next spring and watch a host of new plants appear. These should ideally be left in the nursery bed until autumn and then either replanted or potted on.
Ideal shrubs that react well with good root establishment include, hydrangea, ribes, artemisia, some species of rose, buddleja, escallonia and lavender.
If you are not lifting tender and slightly tender plants like dahlia, melianthus, salvia and some fuchsias, as a rule, roughly one inch (2.4 cm) of mulch makes one degree of protection. Therefore, a nice healthy mulch of eight to ten cm over winter should keep them nice and protected from frost damage.
One of the simple pleasures of November for me is a decent bonfire. I recycle the ash just like herbaceous cuttings, on to the borders. But the main advantage of the bonfire is that it allows us to destroy plant material that has disease, or larger elements that can’t be composted or mulched down. If you are thinking of having a bonfire, then think wisely. Put all the material in a pile that will feed the bonfire from scratch. Avoid lighting the pile and inadvertently burning any small mammals (such as hedgehogs) or beneficial insects that may have made a short visit to the pile in the meantime.
If all else fails and November is not, as I described, awash with warm afternoons of light gardening, then don’t forget that you can, from the comfort of your sofa, browse endlessly from the world of online seed offerings – and place orders, as the unusual ones sell out quickly and seed-sowing season is only a few weeks away!
After last month’s warning, the starting pistol has been fired and you can now happily plant bulbs for spring. If you are buying from the garden centre or a retailer, be sure to give the bulbs a good fondle to ensure they are healthy and firm, alongside a visual check for hydration and to ensure there are no viruses or moulds present.
With all that to occupy you, we don’t even have to time to mention the dreaded c-word, which is just a few short weeks away.
December
Winter interest plants suddenly arrive foremost in our gardening minds as the cols weather, frost and snow arrive. Its funny that unlike the flowers of spring and summer that winter flowers and plants with interesting forms don’t hold our imagination in the same way.
What is intriguing about this is that most winter powers are actually more fragrant than their summer counterparts and as often very beautiful in their small but perfect formations. Perhaps one of the most unassuming and slightly scruffy example is Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’ expense to buy and slow growing its evergreen branches eventually reach 15 meters, well you would wait a very long time so lets say in our own life span about 3m and are covered in highly scented clusters of blush purple flowers throughout later winter into spring. These flowers last well cut and brought into the house which is an added bonus. The secret to success as I was once told by its breeder who introduced it for Hilliers Nursery is to treat is very mean, like the rough conditions it finds 1500m above sea level in China.
Another winter must have is the self supporting shrubby winter honeysuckle, now there are a few different varieties around of different heights so read the labels and if unsure talk to your nursery grower. Most are pure white miniature honeysuckle flowers In glorious clusters but my all time favourite is the slightly more unusual Lonicera standishii ‘Budapest’ where each flower is lightly dusted with purple frosting and to be honest the foliage is much darker and more luxuriant over summer. Most winter flowering honeysuckles reach about 2m eventually.
There are lots of winter flowers to be fair but hopefully before turning into a nursery catalogue I hope these two plants have wetted your appetite for more love for winter plants and of course with that comes a greater deserve to spend a little time outside when we might otherwise not be feeling it.
But I should really be telling stories of the season, some places in the UK have already seen snow and so maybe we should turn to some traditions we pass down and love at this time of year.
Many of us when thinking of Yule log think of rich chocolate cake fashioned like a log decorated with sugar birds and trees, but this sugary cake which is in fact most likely French and has origins which are older. In Norway of the Vikings a Yule log was in fact a giant log which was hoisted onto the hearth to celebrate the return of the sun each year. When hoisted in place each family member would write down wishes, place them in the log before it was ceremonially burnt.
The Yule log thanks to the Vikings is a tradition which has become modified and adapted but present in all of the English-speaking world, In the Southern United States before the end of the American Civil War, the Yule log was a well maintained as a tradition if a little dark for our times. According to scholar Allen Cabaniss:
“For slaves, Christmas had special meaning. December was a slow work month on the typical plantation, and it became the social season for them” The “slaves' holiday” lasted until the Yule log burned, which sometimes took over a week and would be a welcome reprieve to the back breaking work and toil of the plantation.
In Scandinavia there is a long tradition of rather simple straw like reindeer and other animals along with candle holders and other detractive items which appear solely for Christmas to those of us used to glitter and mirrored decorations these simple rather simple but their originals are in fact as old as the Yule log itself. The ancient beliefs of Yule tide honoured the god of the fertile sun and the coming harvest. This god was represented by a white goat, in Sweden, people regarded the Yule goat as an invisible spirit that would appear some time before the mid winter solstice, or later Christmas to make sure that the Yule preparations were done correctly. Objects made out of straw or roughly-hewn wood be called the Yule goat. The function of the Yule goat has differed throughout the ages from honouring his presence for a good new sun in the following year to becoming a mischievous and harmless character in the christian era.
Another aspect of our festive traditions, the famous 12 Days of Christmas is in fact a Norse tradition in its origin, it was believed that Odin, the King of the Gods, rode across the heavens for 12 nights during this season of the midwinter feast which lasted 12 days from the winter solstice.
In English folk lore the saying goes, if you wash clothes on New Year's Day, you'll be “washing for the dead” or washing a loved one away. Literally meaning someone in your household will die in the coming year. There fore there was a great panic to get your laundry washed, dried, folded and put away by New Year's Eve, but why?
This was because Odin and his party of riders could get entangled in it and wouldn't be happy with you, perhaps not happy is an understatement. This riding across the heavens which lasted for 12 nights was known as the Wild Hunt which was a terrifying prospect.
Vikings believed that Odin would raise his sword and lead a terrifying procession of the dead that hurled across the sky during midwinter and abduct unfortunate people who have failed to find a hiding place and if entangled in your washing then no hiding place would save you from his wrath.
Although perhaps later as he got older Odin decided on a more sedate past time as he seems to have past from horse riding terror to merry harmless wanderings in the snow and is perhaps the single most recognisable aspect of Yuletide as we know as the character Old Man Winter who visited homes to join the festivities. This is because the Viking god, Odin was described as a wanderer with a long white beard and is generally considered as the origin of the idea of Father Christmas
So with that I wish you a wonderful Christmas and will reconvene the gardening with gusto in 2024
