'Garden Column - December 2008'

Spruce up the garden with winter colour.

 

In between fretting because Christmas is just round the corner and the shopping won’t do itself - one thing we always over look is the fact the garden can seem an uninviting and a barren space with a load of dead-looking sticks and no colour.

Do not fret as it needn’t be.

There are plenty of ways of adding winter colour into the great beyond outside the backdoor.

Why not plant an ornamental tree to dominate the horizon?

There are many trees that can brighten up the dreariest of winter days - Japanese maples (Acer), silver birches (Betula) & birch-bark cherries (Prunus tibetica) with their attractive coloured stems, ornamental conifers with their feathery blue, green and yellow foliage and even beautiful blossom produced on the branches of the winter flowering cherry (Prunus autumnalis).

Hedging and screening can add colour to these wintry month’s plants like hazels (Corylus) with their catkins and dogwoods (Cornus) with their stem colour. Other hedging like holly (Ilex) can add festive interest as well as winter colour with their brightly coloured berries and laurels (Prunus laurocerasus) with their evergreen leaves.

To infill gaps in borders and beds why not use shrubs that will give winter interest such as Winter Viburnum with their dainty flowers, Camellia with their large, waxy flowers, Skimmia with their flower buds that turn dark red as the weather gets colder opening to white flowers in the spring, Winter-flowering Heathers (Erica) with their hummocks of cheerful blooms and Winter-flowering Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) with bright yellow blooms to help cheer those dull boundary fences and walls.

There are also herbaceous plants that can help add winter colour. Hellebores (Helleborus) can be an ideal choice for the front of the border with their dark green foliage and wide range of flower colour ranging from white to burgundy to even bright green!

If you want something more dramatic why not plant one of the New Zealand Flaxes (Phormium) with their large thick grass-like foliage that come in a wide range of variegations.

Let’s not overlook the simplest way of gaining winter interest – Pansies and Violas. These bedding plants produce a mass of cheerful, smiling blooms that can help brighten up these dull wintry days.

Just remember when planting make sure that any sign of frost has thawed completely from the ground and plant using a medium of compost and bone meal.

Can U dig it!

Areas which are ear-marked for new borders and beds should be turned over and dug as soon as possible. Do a little at a time and either ridge or leave the surface rough.

That doesn’t mean leave it with humps and hollows so it resembles a Belgium battlefield.

Keep the soil level. Breaking lumps down with your spade or fork. On heavier soils it can be worth applying some Vitax Pelleted Clay Breaker. This will help improve the soil structure making it easier to work and maintain.

 

Start increasing festive plants into the house.

Plants grown for the festive season should now be moved from the greenhouse and into the house.

Bowls of forced bulbs should be moved into warm rooms to encourage the blooms to open for the coming weeks.

Poinsettias should be placed into well-lit areas but out the way of cold draughts and heaters such as radiators.

Planted arrangements can be used around the house on sideboards and table decorations.

Cyclamen and Azalea should be used in cooler spots where more exotic plants would suffer.

 

 

Remove suckers from top fruit.

Whilst pruning your top fruit and tidying up in orchard areas it is worth removing any suckers. Dig down and remove them from the area of root. Make a clear cut and then paint with a pruning compound such as Bayer Arbrex Seal & Heal or Vitax Medo. Allow the pruning compound to dry and then replace the earth.

If the ground isn’t rock solid with frost then there is still plenty of time to plant new trees.