South Milford & Lumby

North Yorkshire

Garden Hints for December 2009

There’s a saying that time spent doing work in the garden before Christmas is worth twice as much after. You can get so much more done this year – a hard lesson to learn. By the time you have recovered from Christmas and the New Year the bulbs are up, weeds are taking hold and those dormant Iris and other plants are peeping new shoots through the cover of weeds and grass. Despite global warming, with the isotherms moving north we forget how warm it can be in those winter months and the cold spells keep us close to the TV.

I laid turf in October and it has now taken hold and with the autumn showers will be independent of any need to irrigate artificially. High winds can make turf laying difficult. The turf sods dry out quickly becoming lighter and are prone to take off in the wind. This mean a trip to the garden centre for netting if you have none in the shed and some means of pegging it all down. I think the clothes basket was raided; in this case for pegs.

Things are quiet in the garden. The last of the tomatoes to take off the plants in the greenhouse and the Bramley apples are begging to be picked. Clearing of the vegetable patch and digging the runner bean trench in readiness for emptying the compost heap keeps us warm!

Whilst fallen leaves create worthwhile mulch they also harbour hibernating pests like slugs, snails and woodlice. Spare a thought for winter pansies, polyanthus and soft herbaceous plants [symphytums – Borage and pulmonarias – Lungworts] as they struggle against winter invaders. A scattering of slug pellets make a whale of a difference to the garden and the evergreen herbaceous types.

Clearing away in autumn can make way for the spring bulbs to give a good show. I often get asked about bulbs which when planted ‘never come up’. If you have ever left your bulbs from the previous season in pots to dry off with most of the soil removed you will know why. Every slug, snail, grandfather and worm seems to dive in for a feed and if you are not careful there are very few, if any bulbs left. The same goes for those in the ground. They are subject to all the pest and perils under the sun and soon disappear. Hence the question about bulbs not showing the next season.

Last year’s fungal infected roses have shed their leaves and stems. Blackspot, mildew and rusts will be enjoying their over-winter fungal stage on the ground ready to spring into action and infect new leaves and shoots in the spring. It is essential to prune back dead and dying wood, burn leaves and infected shoots or give to the bin men. Basic hygiene is so important – get the basics right and you are onto a winner. The compost heap is a marvellous resource – keep it active with generous handfuls of nitrogenous fertilizer and then spread as a mulch to keep weeds at bay and add nutrient to the soil. But that’s another story!

Yorkshire Landscape Gardens

dave@daviddmitchell.co.uk