Garden Centre

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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Friday, January 9, 2009

What to do when you can't garden

If you’re anything like me, you’re struggling to stay garden-positive in this bitter weather. Our pond has to be somewhat defrosted every morning with a pan of warm water (it's more or less frozen again by dusk, which is why I say 'somewhat') and the lawn is beautifully covered in hoar frost, but of course we can’t walk in it or bits of it will end up as brown slime as soon as the thaw arrives.

None of this is encouraging – and when the weather is this nasty there’s almost nothing garden oriented to be done, even if you can bear the low temperatures outside.

I’m cheering myself up by looking back at last year’s summer photographs – it’s not just a nostalgia trip: looking at what worked and what didn’t last year helps me plan the garden better this year. I know that I want more space for ‘love lies bleeding’ for example, but that once again my columbines were really disappointing and I shall have to find something to replace them.

Taking a couple of snaps every week is a good way of keeping track of what you did in the previous year – and at times like these, it reminds you that the sun will reappear one day: honestly it will!

Labels: garden photographs, winter garden

The All Seasons Gardener at 9:39 AM 0 Comments

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Saturday, January 3, 2009

New Year, New Greenhouse News!

We couldn’t wait to try out the greenhouse, so we decided that even though December is the month when NOTHING germinates, we’d try and get something to grow for us from seed.

We started with peas, hardy peas. Now they aren’t going to grace the garden (because they are going to the allotment) and they aren’t even a variety that I particularly like (because they are early hardy peas and I like the later super-sweet petit pois) but my impatience knew no bounds and we’d been assured that if there was anything other than mustard and cress that would germinate in the dark of December, it was hardy peas.

And our advisers were right. As of this morning, with icicles forming on the inside of the greenhouse glass, the pond frozen over and even the dogs not very keen on going outside in the chill air, we have fourteen pea seedlings.

Suddenly all the money we spent on the greenhouse seems worthwhile …

Labels: greenhouse, peas, winter garden

The All Seasons Gardener at 9:34 AM 0 Comments

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