This six thing is a good discipline for me. At the first sign of cold weather I am very tempted to hunker down but I know there is plenty to do and walking round the garden this morning was a good reminder to get on and do it. Here’s what I found. Be warned: there’s a bit of a brown theme.
One
I have been mulching and manuring this week and the less than productive veg beds were beneficiaries. I still have more to empty out, but the calendulas need to be pulled up first.
Two
The gooseberry bushes need to be pruned. I have watched the RHS video three times now and so I should be fully qualified to be let loose on them.
Three
A week of cold weather, rain and a light frost has moved the garden firmly into winter. It now looks soggy, brown and collapsed. It’s about now I start having ‘the cutting back’ debate. Does it get done now or in the spring? I will try to do it now as I am always surprised by how early the garden comes back to life and I inevitably end up cutting back both the dead and the emerging shoots in spring.
Four
This is one of the allium heads I missed in the summer cut back. I have managed to get all the alliums for next year planted but I still have about 75 tulip bulbs to put in the ground. I overestimated the numbers for one grouping and the extras will be planted up in pots, which is on my list for this weekend.
Five
Whilst most of the garden is shutting down some plants do manage to keep up the show over winter and even look good in the rain. This is euphorbia characiassubsp. wulfenii.
Six
There’s also some colour in the front garden coming from the cream edged leaves of this variegated pittosporum. Thankfully I can just enjoy this display.
I hope there is something to enjoy in your garden at this time of the year and also that we all get some time to be getting our (northern hemisphere) gardens ready for next year. The Prop’s blog will give the links for today’s SOS and there’s sure to be some colour from gardens in the southern hemisphere if your soul needs an uplift!
I garden in London and so get a little complacent about frosts. But this week the lawn has had a light frosting and it was clearly a sign that cold weather gardening had to start. Last year’s fleece was in shredded tatters in the shed and I hate all those white flaky bits. I hot footed it to Homebase and found some delightful green bags of 35gsm fleece with very handy draw string pulls. I usually fleece up the agapanthus armed with a stapler but these jackets were easy to pull over the plants and the fetching shade of green is slightly less obvious than white. Job done.
I was certainly lulled into complacency by the balmy days I experienced in Suffolk last week but the cold evenings are changing the colours of the garden. The persimmon tree is looking beautiful even as the leaves are falling.
The previously sun scorched hydrangeas are also taking on their winter hue.
But elsewhere the summer container plants are still in good health and I will leave them out throughout the winter. In mild years I have been able to carry the geraniums over into the next summer.
The white antirrhinum sowed from seed is still in flower at this end of the garden but elsewhere I have collected seeds from another plant that has done its bit for summer.
I recently planted out some gaura and pennisetums in a west border and alongside them I put in some Echinacea purpurea ‘White Swan’, which still thinks there’s time to put on a display. Thank you!
n20gardener 