Homes & Gardens
Unleash your garden’s potential
Although this season’s chilly embrace challenges even the hardiest of plants and gardeners, it’s a great time to plan and tackle any unrealised potential in your garden during this dormant period. Experts from the Hadlow College’s Broadview Garden Centre offer some seasonal advice…
hilst nature setles down to slumber, take the opportunity to contemplate what seeds you want to plant and when they’ll need planting, perhaps give your garden a redesign by reshaping a border here and there. It’s a time to address all those litle design
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flaws that might be gnawing away at the perfectionist in you, and to formulate ideas for the coming year. If careful thought is given to planting,
the garden can also be a fabulous place at this time of year, with many plants offering interest that can brighten pots or borders. Winter bedding such as pansies, polyanthus, bellis, cyclamen and wallflowers can add splashes of colour from now through to April.
For fragrance in the garden, consider shrubs such as Lonicera purpusii (winter flowering honeysuckle, non-climbing form) which flowers on the bare stems, as do hamamelis (witch hazel), viburnum bodnantense and jasminum nudiflorum. Many evergreens are also fragrant, such as mahonia, sarcococca (winter flowering box). Others, such as cornus (dogwood), are famous for their brightly coloured stems of red, orange and yellow. Helleborus (Christmas Rose) comes into its own at this time of year, with flowers braving all extremes of weather.
Jobs for the Garden • If you haven’t already, now is the time to carry out any heavy digging tasks, so the winter frost can come in and break down the soil, making less work in the spring. Get ahead of the game and ensure beds are weed-free, dug over and mulched to help supress weeds, retain moisture and make your borders easier to work.
• Take the time to plan your vegetable garden for the coming season, ensuring good crop rotations – seed-planting time will arrive before you know it. If you have a heated greenhouse and want to grow an early crop, you can start to sow tomatoes and peppers from February. • Greenhouses should be insulated against the cold and heaters checked to ensure they are working. Ensure the frames and glass are clean to allow as much natural light in as possible and to help remove potential pests and diseases. • Reduce watering of houseplants now, as light levels are low and they will stay wet for much longer. • Finally, feed the birds! Teir food sources start to run out now and they need more to keep warm. Avoid puting turkey fat out, as this can stick to their feathers.
For further information visit:
www.broadviewgardens.co.uk www.hadlow.ac.uk/horticulture
Mid Kent Living 47
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