During the year I’ve been earmarking various garden jobs as ‘to
be done in the winter’. The plans
include digging out what used to be the herb garden, and tackling the bed behind
the front garden wall, especially the end by the holly tree. The herb garden never really worked; the idea
was to have it as near to the back door (and hence the kitchen) as practicable,
but the Mediterranean herbs like rosemary and thyme sulked, possibly because
the soil was too rich for them, and the oregano and chives ran riot. The latter two are still in there, along with a big clump of dianthus, competing
with weeds such as the horrible creeping potentilla, creeping buttercup, couch
grass and another invasive grass whose name I don’t know. The plan is to dig the lot over, removing as
much as I can, and plant it next year with temporary inhabitants such as
dahlias or annuals so that I can repeat the process again next winter if
necessary. The bed in the front garden
once held alpine strawberries, and some of them or their descendants are still
fruiting away, but there are a number of undesirables (ground elder!) that need
removing. I have plants that I want to
put into that bed, and winter is a good time to do that unless I decide to bite
the bullet and try to move Mahonia x media ‘Winter Sun’ a foot or so to one
side – early spring would be a better time to do that. I would also like to get my pruning saw in to
the two big hazel trees before the sap starts to rise in early spring, and to
try to do something about the damson tree whose main stem is leaning across the
entry to the dump corner and sinking lower and lower. And some of the veg beds still need to be
mulched as part of my new ‘no-dig’ regime.
The problem that I can see looming up before me is that it’s
mid-December and already I’m behind with even the ‘must-do’ winter jobs. I haven’t yet got my tulips planted, and that’s
the top priority now that most of the fallen leaves have been gathered up, at
least from the lawn and veg plot. Last
year’s hellebore leaves need cutting out; some have been done but there are
still a few to tackle. Another ‘must-do’
in winter is to prune the two freestanding apple trees; the little one can be
done now, but the cooking apple tree needs to wait until all the apples have
fallen off (some are too high for me to reach). I know that the latter tree can take two afternoons
to deal with, factoring in time to consider just what needs cutting out, and to find suitable level-ish spots on which to position the stepladder. And I always overestimate just how much time
is available in winter to do jobs. I
forget that it’s mostly cold and/or wet, which does rather dampen my enthusiasm
for getting out there and cracking on with things; and digging weeds out of wet
ground is a messy business. Also I forget
that the days are so much shorter in winter.
At the moment there isn’t much good light after 4pm even on bright days and, although the
days will start getting longer in a week or so, it does curtail the working
day. All too soon it will be March and I’ll
need to start seed-sowing!
 |
| Aucuba and iris seedpods |
 |
| Winter jasmine and parsley |
There’s not much good cutting material for indoor vases, but
I’ve had some sprigs of old faithful Aucuba japonica teamed with seedheads of
Iris foetidissima going for a few weeks now.
Another vase has some winter jasmine with the last
of the parsley seedheads, which makes a lovely bright and fresh-looking little
arrangement, especially in sunshine.
Sunshine has been at a premium lately, but we have had the odd bright
day; the general weather theme has been showery or downright wet with some
strong winds, a very few frosts but overall not unusually cold for this time of
year. However there’s still January and February to
come!
No comments:
Post a Comment