Garden Centre

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Winter Flowering Shrubs

Our wintersweet has just come into flower.

If you don’t know the plant, proper name Chimonanthus praecox (praecox meaning winter flowering, apparently) then you’re missing a treat – it has very strange flowers – outer petals of a yellow very much like that of winter jasmine, and inner ones with a maroon flecking or streaking to them. This is not their key feature, however. That is the scent, which is amazingly sweet and spicy (hence the common name of the plant) and very attractive to winter birds, which often perch in the branches.

I was a little worried about how the plant would cope with the heavy snow and frost, but it seems to have shaken off the bad weather quite comfortably. It did take five years to flower, which is about average, apparently, with the outer limit being seven years and the best you can hope for being three or four years and that might explain why it’s not such a popular garden plant as I think it deserves to be. Perhaps quick-fix gardeners can’t contemplate waiting seven years for something to settle in?

Anyway, it’s an easy thing to grow, even if it appears to be doing nothing much for all those years – it’s frost resistant, and will thrive in any reasonable, well-drained soil, even over chalk, which can’t be said of everything! It does its best in a sunny and sheltered spot and will flower earlier and better if you can offer it a spot against a south facing wall.

Labels: chimonanthus praecox, winter flowering shrubs, wintersweet

The All Seasons Gardener at 2:15 AM 1 Comments

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Friday, January 22, 2010

Front Garden Findings

We have entirely filled one skip and cleared less than one half of the front garden. I cannot express how shocked I am by this – it’s like a temperate rainforest moved in while my back was turned!

So we’re going to need another skip – at least. And the process of clearing away all the rampant ivy, winter jasmine, summer jasmine, holly seedlings (they are everywhere and extremely painful if you happen to grasp one without realising it’s in the middle of a clump of ivy) and associated detritus, I have found a rather nice skimmia that I thought had died …

Yes, I’m aware how terrible a gardener that makes me appear – but the ivy has crept over a low wall and is, in places, clumped about a foot high – and the little skimmia is lurking under what was a canopy of ivy. Now it’s been cleared around and trimmed back a bit, it gives a nice little focal point.

I wonder what else is hidden from present view in the un-tackled half of the wilderness?

Labels: front gardens, garden clearance, skimmia, winter shrubs

The All Seasons Gardener at 6:09 AM 0 Comments

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Monday, January 18, 2010

Gardens in winter: rain, frost, snow and fog!

I can’t remember the last time I had the chance to spend some comfortable hours in the garden. As soon as the snow melted we had heavy rain, and we couldn’t set foot on the lawn for fear of destroying its already fragile root structure. Walking round the paths and looking at everything drooping from its ten day snow-cover was depressing, but at least we could see plants again, even if they were dripping with rain!

And today, my first chance to get out there without it bucketing down, we had fog!

No pictures of my garden I’m afraid because (a) the fog was too thick and (b) the plants look too ragged and sad to show you, but I was pondering, as one does when one can’t work in one’s own green space, how much better designed Japanese and Chinese gardens are than British ones for fog. Perhaps they work with what they get – certainly the Chinese gardens have almost no lawn, strong plant shapes that contrast with each other, like twisted trees and vertical bamboos and lots of hard landscaping, both formal and informal in which gloriously bright tile and wood is used to provide accents. My own garden today is a thousand shades of grey, which made my memories of Beijing even more warm and happy …

Labels: chinese gardens, fog garden, winter garden

The All Seasons Gardener at 8:23 AM 0 Comments

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Thursday, January 14, 2010

Selling your house? Start with your garden!

I’ve been talking to a friend this week who is an estate agent (realtor in the USA) and he commented that my garden would sell my house quicker than anything else that I could do – not that I want to sell my house, but he was making the point that in this time of recession and stalling house prices, people often don’t appreciate how a garden affects the speed (and price) of a house sale.

This intrigued me, so I asked him what I was doing right (and wrong) on a purely theoretical basis.

Apparently 30% of buyers decide if they want a house based on the front garden and path leading to the front door! This means that having flowers in the front garden, or neatly trimmed hedges and shrubs, really makes an impression and because this area always features in the advertisements, ensuring that you have given the house a welcoming appearance can determine if people even choose to view it. He said that people should buy some tubs or hanging baskets and fill them with flowers to brighten up a dull area, clean the path and remove any weeds or litter and ensure that the frontage looks welcoming and cared for.

In rear gardens, grassed areas can be make or break – at a minimum grass should be cut and edges neatly trimmed, because a tatty lawn implies other more hidden problems in the house in general. Then you need to deadhead all your flowers and make sure that trees and shrubs are kept in reasonable bounds, no twelve foot rambling roses, for example.

Decking must look perfect or you’ll lose money on the purchase price for repairs – fortunately we have paving, not decking, but he hinted it could do with a good power wash if I were in a selling mood. Ponds need to be clean and tidy, and sheds also. Finally, garages are important – apparently nobody puts a car in the garage anymore, in stead they use it for storage or as a workshop, so clearing the floorspace is important and hanging some baskets or putting some trellis on the garage wall for a climbing plant really adds to the appearance of the area.

I had no idea that the garden was so important to the value of my property! It makes no difference, of course, except to the way I think, but I shall look at my garden with a new eye from now on.

Labels: garden first impressions, garden sales, selling houses

The All Seasons Gardener at 6:18 AM 1 Comments

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Monday, January 11, 2010

Still snow – garden a no-go area

It’s getting really depressing now – how do people who live in snowy zones cope with weeks or months of blanket whiteness? My Resolution #3 is a non-starter still, there's nothing to enjoy except the view from the window!

I’m also getting a little concerned about what will happen when the thaw finally arrives – I know that shrubs and fruit trees are very vulnerable to dying off through sitting in waterlogged soil in cold weather. This is because they don’t put out new roots nearly as fast as other plants and so can’t cope well with what is essentially an underwater experience.

So, to be on the safe side, I’m taking a few cuttings as soon as the weather warms up because I fear that plants that may seem to make a good recovering will still die off in the summer as a result of root damage. And as soon as the plants are no longer frozen, but before the spring starts, I shall probably prune back a lot of my ornamental perennials and shrubs really hard, so they aren’t supporting a lot of new leafy growth on starved and loosened roots which can lead to root rock. That’s going to mean that the garden looks pretty dire for a while, but better that than losing established plants.

And because snow, like rain, washes away nutrients, I shall be getting out there as soon as it’s warm and dry enough, to mulch the roots of all my shrubs to try and give back some of the goodness the winter has stolen.

This is what the garden looks like today … sad or what?

Labels: garden snow, january garden tips, plants in snow

The All Seasons Gardener at 8:34 AM 0 Comments

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Friday, January 8, 2010

January garden picture

Well there’s not an awful lot to see in this, is there? Snow, snow and more snow. But at least I'm keeping my garden resolution #1 and sharing it with you.

What am I learning from this picture? The enormous palm tree, which we took as a two foot sapling from my parents’ garden in Torquay really needs to be cut down and given a chance to re-shoot from a more manageable height, as it’s totally overshadowing the pond and is probably quite shallow rooted, so I’m worried that strong winds could bring it down.

The lawn, so neatly blanketed in snow, is actually quite a mess under its white covering, and I’m wondering about re-turfing it, as it’s such a small area and we could have a lovely emerald carpet if we started again with really good quality turf.

At the bottom of the garden, next to the greenhouse is the pond, believe it or not! It’s a lovely mature eco-system now, but perhaps I need to get in there and thin out some of the surrounding growth to give it a chance to reveal its watery beauties more clearly to the eye.

Labels: garden picture, garden snow, monthly garden photograph

The All Seasons Gardener at 5:38 AM 2 Comments

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Tuesday, January 5, 2010

New Year’s Resolutions for the garden

It’s that time of year when we resolve to improve our lives and our selves, but this year I’m making some garden resolutions too.

Resolution One is to photograph the garden from the upper story of the house every month, like this one taken in July – far too often I tend to take only close-up photos and then when I go to buy new plants I forget what’s on either side of the spot I’m planning to fill. It will also make a good monthly reference of what’s in flower and where more work is needed to improve the overall performance of the garden.

Resolution Two is to take some kind of workshop or class in gardening. I’ve never taken a single class, everything I do comes from watching my parents and grandparents gardening, from reading books or TV programmes. I think it would be wonderful to have some real expertise under my belt!

Resolution Three is actually going to be the most difficult – it’s to enjoy my garden as much as I work in it, so that I eat outside more often, or just wander around the garden enjoying it, rather than stopping to prune plants or remove weeds and get stuck in the details of by green space rather than remembering the glorious overview – in other words, I resolve to be a garden user, rather than just a gardener!

Have you made any garden resolutions?

Labels: garden photographs, garden resolutions, gardening classes

The All Seasons Gardener at 12:42 PM 0 Comments

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