Gardening, whatever the
with Sally Cunis Garden Design Limited
On the whole, gardeners are optimistic and regard the New Year as a wonderful opportunity to make their gardens more spectacular than ever!
If turning over a new leaf (excuse the pun) is one of your New Year’s resolutions, it can be helpful to write two lists; the first setting out jobs that can be done indoors, if the weather is poor, and the second, jobs to do in the garden right now, subject of course to the vagaries of the weather.
Prioritise and be realistic
ensuring you don’t embark on tasks you can’t possibly achieve at this time of year.
Seating area flanked by planted baths
Orchids
If it’s not too cold, wet, snowy or icy outside the following list will get you out into the garden:
If the weather is too bad to be working in the garden, your list of indoor jobs could include some of the following ideas:
• Tidy and organise the shed including cleaning pots with a dilute solution of Jeyes fluid for reuse next season
• Organise a mower service unless you are competent at draining the mower oil, checking spark plugs etc.
• Chit first early potatoes in a frost- free room
• Plant up containers for seasonal colour with primulas, hardy cyclamen and variegated foliage to brighten winter days
• Move plants such as Orchids and Clivia into a warm room or conservatory to flower
• Check tree ties and stakes against wind rock
• Get on with some winter digging; cover prepared soil with polythene/membrane to allow soil to warm up prior to planting
• If you failed to do so before Christmas, wrap up any slightly tender plants and potted plants still in the garden
• Carry on planting out bare-root trees, shrubs and roses. This can be done until the end of March ( but no later as once they are in leaf, plants will lose moisture quickly and are less easy to establish)
• Clear away old rhubarb leaves and debris and set a rhubarb forcer, large pot or old dustbin over the crown to encourage fresh young stems
66
aroundtownmagazine.co.uk Sally Cunis Garden Design
• Qualified in garden design & horticulture • Designing gardens for over 25 years • Gardens to suit your lifestyle • As heard on BBC Radio Sheffield
Sally Cunis MA (Cantab) MRICS
www.sallycunisgardendesign.co.uk sjc@sallycunisgardendesign.co.uk www.pothousehamlet.co.uk/sallycunis.htm
• Winter is the best time to see the structure of the garden, any problems with its layout, gaps in planting and to plan any changes required
• Finally do some armchair gardening and relax with seed and plant catalogues and dream of warmer months!
Aluminium baths of bulbs, heather and violas
• Towards the end of February, winter pruning of hardy shrubs such as Buddleia and Spirea can be carried out. In the kitchen garden, currants, gooseberries and fruit trees can be pruned.
If the weather is fine, stroll round the garden and enjoy the surprising perfumes and delights of the early spring garden. Look out for snowdrops, crocus, winter aconites and hellebores which brighten the leaf litter around the trees whilst Daphne, Sarcococca and Clematis Armandii fill the air with scent.
Last autumn I filled two old aluminium baths with a wide variety of bulbs from my mother, topped with little violas and winter heathers. They are placed either side of a
Rhubarb forcer
seating area part way down the garden so I will have to venture out, whatever the weather, to see what magic is working there!
Happy New Year!
Clematis Armandii
Weather
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
