1. Weeds
A weed is a plant in the wrong place. Even if it’s an otherwise desirable plant
that would be welcome if it were in the right place. Get them out, or move them elsewhere. Yes, even the useful plants. Yes, that includes the alpine strawberry
plants that have been providing little desserts all autumn, and the oregano,
even though it attracts bees and butterflies.
There are too many of them and they’re taking up space that ought to be
used by other plants. Decide where you
want them and put them there, and weed out the rest; don’t let them colonise
other places. (I’ve been a little better
at this during 2017; several plants have gone into the green waste bin.) You also need to get on top of the
lily-of-the-valley that is spreading out from its foothold in the veg plot; get
digging! And what are you going to do
about the hypericum that has self-seeded under the osmanthus; keep it, move it
or ditch it? – make up your mind!
2. Paths
And on the subject of the strawberries and oregano: they are
particularly undesirable when they are in the middle of the veg plot
paths. If they’re in the way in the veg
beds, they’re even more in the way when they’re growing in the path and you
have to step on the beds to go around them!
Get them out as a priority, and weed the paths so that you can use them
properly. The whole point of a path is that it's a clear space for you to walk on.
3. Be ruthless!
Another aspect of ‘plant in the wrong place’ is the overall
planting plan, which contains too many shrubs that have outgrown their
welcome. You planted them far too close
to begin with, and many of them are now 20 years old and far, far bigger than
you ever envisaged. The time has come to
decide whether to remove some altogether, and to be stricter about cutting back
and shaping the others. You’ve been
talking for years about taking out the big philadelphus that hardly ever flowers,
but the problem is that it’s jammed in between other big shrubs and you can’t
get in there to do anything about it!
The neighbouring Viburnum tinus ‘Gwenlian’ that was damaged by the
snowfall recently is a good place to start; cut it hard back (take cuttings
first if you must, since it is admittedly a good plant, but where else in the
garden would you put additional plants?), then get in there with the pruning
saw and do some radical removal. There
are about six big shrubs in that area in a space that a sensible gardener would
hesitate to plant up with two, so decide what you’re going to keep and get rid
of the others. And make a decision about
the brachyglottis (what used to be Senecio greyii); it has become woody beyond
all reasonable hope of redemption, even if the sparrows do love it as a safe
place to hang out in, so take it out altogether. Ok, so you’ve taken cuttings of it, but think
very hard before you plant any of them, unless you’re going to keep them well
trimmed; after all, you don’t actually like the flowers, so cutting them off
wouldn’t be a problem. Both it and the
viburnums could be kept within bounds if you’re rigorous about cutting them
back. And there are other shrubs that
need reducing in size (the aucuba, both the osmanthuses, the Buddleja
alternifolia ….). Thinking about the
space occupied by the brachyglottis: it’s a space that needs a smallish (NB:
smallish! Don’t get carried away) evergreen or evergrey, so a well-shaped
brachyglottis would be a possibility, or perhaps one of the hebes, or even
another Viburnum davidii. But only one
of those, mind you; don’t even think of squeezing in two or more!
4. Get those jobs done
You’ve been telling yourself for months that you ought to do
some discreet tying-in of the columnar yews to prevent their branches from
falling outwards as they grow. And what
happens? We’ve had two big falls of
snow, pulling the branches down, and now one of the yews is out of shape. You still have time to fix it, but get it
done before we get more snow. Likewise
the two Viburnum tinus with the branches broken by the snow. Yes, you will have a lot of prunings to get
rid of, but needs must. And don’t put
off lifting and dividing the iris in the pond; yes, it’s a horrible and
difficult job, but it will become more horrible and more difficult if you
ignore it. It won’t go away.
5. Labelling
Actually you have been better at this in the past year. You have finally learnt that you won’t
remember which bulbs you have planted in that pot unless you label it, and that
you won’t necessarily recognise the contents of small pots, especially in
winter if they’re deciduous. You’ve got labels,
so use them! And, since the pack of
labels is running low, get yourself some wooden ones instead and reduce the amount of
plastic you’re using in the garden, even by just a little; it all helps.
6. Keep talking to yourself in 2018 - it does work, sometimes!
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