Your Garden, Your Call
I’ve just been watching Adam Frost – my horticultural hero - on Breakfast TV. (What else is there to do on a dreary today like today, I ask you?) He was talking about evaluating what stage in the season your garden is right now, in order to decide what needs doing. So, for example - sorry to steal your thunder, Adam - if your borders are dry, then now’s the time to mulch. If they are wet, then leave that job for now and do something else that doesn’t involve walking on the soil, like sowing some seeds in the greenhouse.
And I thought that was the most practical advice I’ve heard in a long time. There is so much in the How-To manuals and gardening magazines that says, prune your roses in late Febrauray, prune your salvias in late March, and so on. But so much depends upon which part of the country you live in, whether we’ve had a mild, wet winter or are in the grip of a cold snap, as to when it’s appropriate to carry out regular tasks in your own garden.
Every year is different too. This time last year we were experiencing prolonged periods of cold, dry weather so shrub pruning was the thing in February. The start of this year has, however, brought constant rain and mild temperatures, so although spring bulbs are coming into flower and shoots are starting to appear, you wouldn’t want to be walking on your borders, to avoid compaction.
It’s too early to tell which borderline hardy perennials have succumbed to this saturation, because it’s usually winter wet, rather than freezing conditions, that puts paid to plants such as salvias. We shall wait and see.
Winter pruning can be completed at any time during the dormant period. Deciduous, winter flowering shrubs such as viburnum bodnantense, chimonanthus or wintersweet, and corylopsis or winter hazel, can be pruned directly after flowering and before they come into leaf. Or, then again, perhaps they only need a light trim, removing dead, diseased and damaged stems; it’s your garden, you make the rules.
So, for now, it’s time to take stock. Take a stroll around your plot and look at what needs doing. Decide what you can do now and what can wait. And be sure to stop and smell the flowers, listen to the bird song, admire the small things. And finally, thank you Adam, for inspiring me to write today’s Blog.
Love, Caroline
