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Editorial
I also noticed with some considerable satisfaction as I opened the curtains this morning and looked out, that there was a small pink splash in the bed just in front of the house. On further investigation I found four primrose flowers and nearby a single pale yellow primrose flower - now that's serious evidence and has cheered me up no end. It won't be long now before the spring bulbs start to come out leading to the crescendo of blooms and blossom of mid and late spring.
My spring bulb displays consist of daffodils, tulips, muscari and hyacinths, there used to be crocuses too until they decided to first stop flowering and then stop coming up at all, I think they were overcome by a fungus. It might seem a limited palette, but there is so much variety of these types that there's no reason to try anything different. I go for group plantings of one variety rather than plantings of mixed varieties even though the large mixed sacks available in the autumn seem to be better value. The effect is more impressive when they come up in the spring.
Now if you have a garden, you have your own private gym. It's out in the fresh air (do you get enough of that?) and as there's no membership fees required you can spend the money on plants and tools. On the subject of tools, the only power tool I have for the garden is my lawn mower, and I've been toying with the idea of getting a push mower for that instead, they bear little relationship to the old fashioned heavy cast iron one that I remember my granddad pushing around the garden (and getting me to push around the garden as well). Gentle exercise, not heavy weights and lots of repetitions are best for most people and that's exactly what gardening provides. It's the reason I've never bought a strimmer and use a high quality pair of hedge shears instead of anything powered. I just don't see the point of going to the gym and expending effort to just make some weights move back and forwards. If I'm going to make the effort, I'd like to see some rewards and what's more immediate than a neatly trimmed hedge, with the satisfaction that you did it yourself? If you're really into the idea, you could get an allotment and take the health benefits to another level by growing our own organic fruit and veg. Don't under estimate the time commitment for this though, if you leave it a lone for a couple of weeks or more from spring to autumn, the weeds will start to take over and you'll start to get dispirited. I'm thinking about the possibility of turning part of the garden into a potager, an ornamental kitchen garden as this seems a good way of fulfilling several goals. Links: American horticultural therapy association | Thrive | Fit and healthy | Be careful out there! | More links
I'd recommend Morning Glory, Pansies or Violas, Sweet Peas and Sunflowers if you've never tried any plants from seed before. Morning Glory, Pansies, Violas and Sweet Peas seed should be sown under cover, a windowsill will do, or conservatory or other light and cool but protected place you may have. Use seed compost for seeds - not multi-purpose, the germination and success rate is considerably better with seed compost. Pansy and Viola should be sown in seed trays and Morning Glory and Sweet Peas in deeper pots. Prick them out when large enough to handle, don't try it too soon and then gradually harden them off when risk of frost is over to be planted outside, they will all do better in containers than the ground, you can plant excess there too, but prepare it very well first with well-rotted manure or garden compost. Give the sweet peas and morning glory some sticks for support as they get taller and keep morning glory plants apart as they have a tendency to twine around each other and are difficult to separate. Sunflowers, now available in a great many varieties of various size and colour can be sown straight into the ground or into a plant pot first, I'd put 3 seeds around the edge of a 3" pot and put the pots some where cool, a sheltered part of the garden will do, or they'll find it too difficult to adapt to outdoor conditions if grown on too tall in soft conditions first.
Baby plants - an annual warning
But be careful when these little mites look at you with their soulful little leaves and temptation of fantastic value. The reality is that unless you make quite a lot of effort and / or have a heated greenhouse, you're better off waiting until later in the year even if it does mean paying more. Small half hardy plants such as Pelargoniums (Geraniums) along with Fuchsias and myriad other plants, (their varieties get added to each year courtesy of the breeders) are demanding unless you're equipped for them. You won't be able to plant them outside until later in May at the earliest, if you buy many now, you'd better have lots of space! I was tempted myself a couple of years ago and bought some Busy Lizzie (Impatiens) seedlings in a pot, brought them home, potted them up and looked after them while keeping an eye on the sizes and price in the garden centre I got them from. Come April, those leaving the nurseries where they had been given optimal conditions were larger than mine and worked out cheaper as well! The main advantage of buying them like this is that you are more likely to get a large number of one particular colour or variety which may not be available later on. If you tend to buy mixed trays of colours, then I honestly wouldn't bother until later when they're larger and healthier than you could ever have managed just given a windowsill. One of the quietest months in the garden, not much to do and if you haven't done it, the weather often makes it fairly unpleasant to start now. For the hardy souls though, there are jobs to do and it can even be pleasant on a calmer, warmer day.
The dormant winter months are an ideal time to prune the over congested spurs from pome fruits. Apples and pears are mainly spur-fruiting trees, meaning that the fruits are produced on short lateral branches some 6-12 inches long. When a tree has been growing for some time, these spurs become over-crowded. The result is a rather untidy looking tree, lots of blossom and lots of small and not very high quality fruit. If you reduce the spurs, then the overall yield won't increase, but you will get a good improvement in the size and quality of the fruit that form. Remove the older more complicated growth and thin weak stems leaving young vigorous growth behind. It depends on the state of the tree, but you should be aiming to remove about a third of the spur stems. If you repeat this process every year or tow, then the tree will eventually be fruiting only on wood that is no more than a few years old. If you have a very overgrown tree where the fruit is being borne further and further from the trunk each year, then it's a good idea to perform some more drastic pruning. Rather than trying to trim the spurs, you need to cut them all off and about a third of the branch too. Cut back to a fork, and just do 1/3rd of the branches this year and complete it over the next two years. The dormant season is the best time to this for apples and pears, when the buds begin to burst it's too late. Drupes on the other hand are pruned in the summer when in growth as winter pruning for these carries a high risk of introducing disease.
If you can't plant them straight away, then "heel them in". This means cover the roots with soil in a temporary position so that they don't rot or dry out. Don't be tempted to leave them in the bag or other wrapping even for a short time. If you haven't space to put them in the soil, then "planting" them in sharp sand (a couple of quid from a builders merchant for a 40kg bag) will do nearly as well (dries out quicker than soil). You could even do this in a bucket or other container as long as there are drainage holes in the bottom so the roots don't sit in water. Why bother? Why not wait until it's a bit warmer and more pleasant and plant out of containers?
So brave the elements and do it now! Make sure though that you add lots of organic matter to the soil when filling the planting hole and that you stake trees well. We're still very much in the dormant season still, but already thinking of the growing season to come. I often think how lucky we are to have such pronounced seasonal changes, it all helps to keep us fresh as well the garden. Top Selling Garden Tools
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As I'm sitting down to write this a Sunday
morning at the end of January, there's hints of spring out in the garden, the sun
is out in a pale blue sky and yellow streaks of light are making the bare branches
of my fruit trees look most dramatic. The erect red stems of my dogwood are being
picked out very nicely too - I went for elegantissima, the variegated form, not
as all round tough as the green leaved varieties or with stems quite as bright,
but a better year round performer.
The
last couple of years I stopped trying new varieties of spring bulbs and have stuck
with the traditionals and varieties of those. I found that many unusual species
bulbs that are often offered don't perform so well when taken away from their native
habitats, whereas horticultural varieties that have been produced by breeders have
to be able to grow in many places to be commercially viable. So hardy in fact are
some of these varieties that old daffodils that were thought to have been lost forever
have been found growing wild along roadsides decades after they were last cultivated
and so brought back into cultivation again.
Fairly
soon and certainly before the end of the month, the garden centres and now even
the supermarkets will soon be trying to sell us "plugs" and "superplugs" of half
hardy plants. These are small plants, often little more than a few weeks old
seedlings or rooted cuttings of summer bedding and basket plants. They appear to
be good value - just a couple of pounds or so for 6 or 12 plants when later on
in April larger versions will be £1.50 or more each.