A RESOLUTION-ARY APPROACH TO YOUR GARDEN
It is popular at this time of year to make new year’s resolutions - so why not make some for your garden and the way you want it to look in 2003?
One of many ideas might be to get shot of those invasive bluebells or couch grass which self seed everywhere. It’s very easy to get complacent and leave things in just because they add colour, or even worse, make your garden green - but there is no time for ridding this in late spring, so why not address it now.
Walking around your garden in mid-winter, there are signs of spring all around as the first crocuses and snowdrops emerge through the soil. If you are lucky, your garden will be filled with scent as Viburnum and witch hazel bear profuse blooms on bare stems.
Helebores (Christmas Roses) unfurl their pendant white cups, making you kneel down to appreciate their full delicate beauty.
Pots of sprouting bulbs can be purchased from garden shops and enjoyed on a window sill as they spoil you with an early taste of spring, putting the NEW in New Year!
Be in remote control of your garden
ON COLD days, this is the perfect time of year to do a bit of what I like to call "armchair gardening by the fire." - Why not browse through the seed catalogues that fall on your door mat to find seeds that are perhaps a little unsual?
Whilst your neighbours are going for the run of the mill plants and flowers for their 2003 displays, you could be gently researching an array of individual, original and different, although reliable, blooms to really set your garden displays alight and make it the envy of everyone nearby.
Three points - firstly, you will discover that young plants for growing on are also available from these catalogues. And secondly - don’t restrict yourself to bedding plants; there are plenty of vegetables with ornamental qualities and herbaceous plants which will flower in the first year from seed (or young plants). Thirdly, don’t dismiss the invaluable qualities tender perennials have - many are easily grown from seed, yet they will add a very exotic touch to any part of your summer garden.
1. Dig over vacant vegetable plots, leaving the soil in rough clods for the winter weather to break down.
2. Use mild wet spells to clean your patio with either a pressure washer or just a detergent with a stiff broom.
3. Sow seeds of Pelargoniums and begonias in gentle heat indoors. Like in window sill pots covered with polythene.
4. Rake over your lawn to remove moss and debris.
5. Remove leaves from greenhouse panes and gutters to allow extra light.
6. In dry spells sheds and fences would benefit from a generous creosoting.
Feeding them is not that much of a bird-en!
A garden that's tiny is just fine-y
Any possibility is possible, you can create a bonsai garden, a mini herb garden, a tiny rockery or an indoor spring bulb display in a small container. Here’s a few ideas to set your mini-gardens alight......
The mini-herb garden is particularly useful as many herbs grown outdoors either die down for the winter or finish completely at the end of the season. Chives, Basil and Coriander can be purchased from supermarkets and be planted into this scheme to provide fresh herbs for both colour and a culinary use throughout the winter.
The tiny rockery- Features many alpines, which do not particularly like our wet winter climate. Instead they enjoy dry cold frosty conditions. But grown indoors with ample water, they’ll think its summertime. Some of the more unusual Saxifragas and Echeverias will appreciate these conditions.
The spring bulb display is the quickest way to create an indoor garden. Pots of bulbs can be purchased from gardening outlets and planted in containers to provide an almost instant frenzy of colour, which is way ahead of the outdoors.
The Bonsai garden - The word Bonsai means ‘little tree’ in Japanese. To create a Bonsai garden doesn’t mean you have to spend half a week’s wage on a dinky tree! You can buy a dwarf pine, Beech, Silver Birch or even apple tree seedling and by planting them into a small Bonsai dish and carefully training and pruning them, given patience, you will create your own Bonsai. A common thought is that the practise of growing a potentially large growing tree in a tiny container is cruel - but this is no more so than growing house plants in pots.
Keep the compost just moist and the seedlings should emerge in one to three weeks. Grow the young plants on until late February when they can be potted up individually.
During mild March weather aclimatise them to outdoor conditions until they are left standing in their pots outside.
Once the ground warms up during April, they can be planted outside and make sure plenty of slug pellets are scattered around the young plants. They will grow on rapidly to produce the early summer show.
1. Canna Indica - Commonly known as ‘Indian Shot’, there are flamboyant varigated types available now. Why not use them to hot up your herbaceous borders.
2. Thunbergia - ‘Sunset Shades’ can be used to clamber over small shrubs in a really warm sunny spot in the garden. Imagine it climbing through a blue Caryopteris shrub in August. Hot stuff!
3. Lantana - Most varieties will add a Mediterranean touch to your patio containers.
4. Coleus - ‘Molten Lava’ will add fire to your containers with its vivid black and orange leaves.
5. Abutilon Pictum ‘Thomsonii’ - Its salmon-pink and orange flowers will set containers alight.
See you next month!
Go back
