Garden Centre

Monday, November 30, 2009

End of month garden view

Much as it pains me, I have to say that November has probably been my worst gardening month for years. I’m trying to remember a day it didn’t rain, and the only one that comes to mind was the day we had a severe weather warning for gales – we knew that, because at 3am we heard a neighbour’s shed tiles hitting the ground, and it carried on until late evening, by which time all my nerines were prone on the ground, where they have remained because it hardly seemed worth staking them up when the rain just knocked them down again.

So here’s my totally dispiriting view of this month’s garden. On Saturday afternoon I brushed off this path and happened to leave the empty bucket outside. By Monday morning the path was covered in leaves again and the bucket, as you can see, has captured a healthy amount of rainwater – as if we needed to store any!

And we haven’t had a single frost so far, not even an air frost, so there are baby snails happily denuding the few leaves that remain in the garden, and woodlice (where I grew up we called them chickie pigs) apparently beginning their task of world domination by taking over every crack and crevice in the walls and paths.

But half an hour ago I saw a tiny sign of hope and while the photo isn’t very good, I hope it speaks of better things to come … where there’s a rainbow, surely there’s a little bit of sun ahead?

Labels: garden rain, nerines, November garden tasks

The All Seasons Gardener at 6:52 AM 0 Comments

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Monday, November 23, 2009

November Tulips

It seems like everybody else in Britain is emptying planters with summer plants in, and refilling them with tulips. I am not.

This year, after eleven years, I am finally admitting defeat. Though I love tulips, especially parrots, our garden is just too windy to allow tulips to make a good show. The ones that bend will end up with their heads facing down, despite being staked on both sides, and the ones that don’t bend have their petals wind-damaged anyway.

It feels a bit tragic, to deny myself one of my favourite flowers, but one the other hand, every spring has been a tulip disappointment, so at least this year I shan’t feel that my expectations have been thwarted.

But what should I replace the tulips with, I wonder? Does anybody else live in such a wind-blown area that tulips won’t thrive, and if so, what do you grow for spring colour and form? Almost everything else, bulb-wise, I already have, (apart from daffodils which seem to be the favourite food of the local squirrel population) and I’m not sure what can take the place of the gaudy tulip in my spring planning.

Labels: garden planters, garden tubs, tulip planting, tulips

The All Seasons Gardener at 9:23 AM 3 Comments

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Thursday, November 19, 2009

No flowers, no fruit, November

Actually there might not be any fruit but there are plenty of flowers! The nerines are going mad and the winter jasmine and the winter clematis are in full bloom – several weeks earlier than they were last year. We haven’t had our first frost yet, which is surprising, although we seem to have had enough rain already in November to provide for the whole year.

We still haven’t managed to clean the greenhouse and with more bad weather forecast for the weekend, I just can’t see when we’re going to get the task completed. How do I feel about this? Equally divided between happiness at not having to do something so loathsome and back-breaking and tense about the fact that it does have to be done, and the longer it’s left, the worse the weather gets … I am a worrier, for sure.

Normally, by this time of year I’d be thinking about Christmas flowers and decorations, holding back some plants to try and have blossom for the house over the holidays and so on, but this year, as we have two kittens, there won’t be Christmas flowers. There won’t even be Christmas decorations! Having been through this a few times before, I know how kittens can break almost anything, how much they love shiny items and that small cats up Christmas trees look funny but can actually do themselves harm. So all I’m doing this year is getting the kitten-monsters used to vases. I do this by blu-tacking a vase to the marble fire surround for a couple of days, after filling it half-full with nice heavy ball-bearings. This means they can’t knock it over, and soon get bored with it. In a few months, when they are bigger, I will put flowers in these floor-level vases, and then as they calm down even further, I’ll move the vases onto mantelpieces, shelves and tables and hope they survive – the vases, not the kittens!

Labels: assembling a greenhouse, nerines, november flowers, winter clematis, winter jasmine

The All Seasons Gardener at 7:41 AM 0 Comments

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Monday, November 16, 2009

The November Greenhouse

Honestly, there are few more thankless tasks than clearing out the greenhouse for the winter. However organised you try to be, there are things that you just can’t find a home for while you sort it out, so you end up moving pots and tools from one annoying place to another, and falling over them, and losing them (or I do, anyway) and generally getting frustrated about the whole process. You have to switch off electricity if you have it and cover the sockets, and then, unless the weather is horribly inclement, take out all the plants, containers, pots and staging as well as protecting any tender or half-hardy plants with horticultural fleece or putting them in the shed or garage.

Then you have to wash it. We use washing up liquid in hot water because we have no diseases or pests to get rid of (as yet) and because the panes are polycarbonate, not glass and I’m worried about some disinfectants eating into the plastic. There’s not a lot of information on exactly what to use sadly. And again, no matter how organised you try to be, you end up getting drips of water down your neck from the upper panes as you work on the lower ones. And then, of course you have to leave it ventilated while it dries out. And that’s been a problem, because every time that we’ve thought about undertaking the task this week, there’s been a gale warning or a storm warning, or both. And it has bucketed down, with really strong winds, so although I’m glad we didn’t start the task, only having done the clearing out bit, I am not sure when we’ll get round to the washing down and disinfecting bit.

But it’s worth it to be able to get your peas and sweet peas germinated over the winter. And we’ll have spare pots of broad beans going, to fill in any gaps in the ones that are germinating in the soil, and my fuchsias will be safe from the worst of the winter weather.

Labels: november greenhouse, winter greenhouse tasks

The All Seasons Gardener at 5:20 AM 0 Comments

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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Other people’s gardens – the cottage garden border

Sometimes I am stopped in my tracks when I’m travelling around, by examples of really good garden design and maintenance. Last month I was struck by the simple beauty of this tiny front garden – less than a yard wide and fronting onto a fairly busy village street, the owners have managed to create a perfect cottage garden feel despite the constrained space and the difficulties of location and access.

What makes it work so well is the combination of plant height, colour and texture that will provide year round interest despite the minute area within which the gardener is working, even the effect of plants spilling over paths with haphazard charm has been accomplished without affecting the access of pedestrians to the pavement. I’m not sure I could have put together so effective a scheme, but I’m learning from it for my own front garden.

Labels: cottage garden border

The All Seasons Gardener at 5:54 AM 1 Comments

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Thursday, November 5, 2009

November garden tasks

This month I’m starting my hardwood cuttings – I’ve got spirea and viburnam that I want to propagate to sell this time next year at a garden sale for a local hospice. The best time for these plants to be struck as cuttings is from November to January because they have gone dormant from this year and not begun to set the coming year's leaf buds. Cuttings should be about a foot long and have around three buds. Trim the cutting to about six inches, keeping all the buds and simply push the right end of the cutting into an area of sheltered soil, or a large pot containing a mixture of potting compost and sand. If you plant it upside down it will NOT grow! Leave alone for a year and you have baby plants.

I’m also mulching, although I don’t have too much exposed soil to mulch this year, I’m trying to get some good layers of organic matter under the evergreens where the soil will be getting starved of nutrients.

And I’m piling up sacks and sacks of leaves from the apple trees to use as mulch in two years time. Such a boring job but at least it makes for free garden enrichment!

Labels: autumn hardwood cuttings, autumn mulching, spirea, viburnam

The All Seasons Gardener at 10:04 AM 0 Comments

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Monday, November 2, 2009

A good year for all roses

It’s been an amazingly good year for roses, even heavy-headed roses like the English ones which usually only do well in dry summers because rain causes the many-petalled roses to lose their shape. Nobody could say this summer had been a dry one, but even so, the roses, generally, have done well.

And I’ve been amazed at how well the simple roses have held up this autumn – from my weekend walk I came across not just one, but two, perfect examples of why the simpler, smaller, roses are really worth growing. The first is a dog rose, and one pictures captures the whole lifetime of the flower, from bud through perfect blossom to decaying bloom.

The second is some kind of moss rose that is growing in a neighbour’s garden. She doesn’t know what its called, and says she’s had it for as long as she can remember – she’s in her seventies, so whatever it is, one can assume it’s hardy and long-lived as well as pretty!

Labels: autumn roses, dog roses, moss roses

The All Seasons Gardener at 7:12 AM 2 Comments

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