Gardening jobs for February

It's blowing a hoolie and sleeting as I write, and apparently the rest of February may be similar, particularly here in the northwest. If you are likely to venture into the garden, I can assure you that you will experience a healthy, warm rosy glow and feeling of deep satisfaction... once you're back inside again. Here's a few tasks for you;

Shrubs and flowering plants

• When the flowers have died back, congested clumps of snowdrops can be lifted, divided and replanted at the same depth;

• Prune flowered stems of Winter Jasmine back to a healthy bud and remove weak spindly stems;

• Trim the faded blooms off winter-flowering heathers to prevent plants becoming woody;

• Shorten summer-pruned stems on Wisteria and campsis to two or three buds, and cut back any sideshoots;

• Dead-head winter-flowering plants in containers, such as cyclamen and violas.

Fruit and veg

• Cut back old, fruited canes of autumn-fruiting raspberries to ground level;

• If any summer-fruiting raspberry canes have out-grown their supports, cut stems back to 10cm above the top wire;

• Resist the temptation to sow too many seeds indoors or in propagators otherwise they'll need potting on and planting out, before temperatures are warm enough;

• Put early varieties of seed-potatoes in cardboard egg-box trays on windowsills, to develop eyes ('chitting’), to give them a head-start;

• Plant bare-root fruit canes, and apply a multi-purpose fertiliser around the base of existing fruit bushes, trees and canes.

Gardening alongside nature

• Prune any deciduous hedges this month, before the nexting season starts;

• Put up nesting boxes and continue to put out food for the birds;

• Keep the area under bird feeders clean, to avoid attracting rodents;

• Don't turn your compost heap until later in the spring, to avoid disturbing any creatures that may be sheltering there.

Retreat back to your sofa with a well-earned cuppa and maybe even a piece of cake.

In search of winter fragrance

Surprising though it may sound, I have only recently found the confidence to remove, replace and relocate plants in my own garden. It takes a magnum effort to overcome my reluctance to take out a plant which someone else has planted. They must have wanted it to be there for a reason... But plants do have a habit of growing, and, depending on the nature of the plant, may eventually outgrow their space. And different people have different plant preferences; it's my garden now, so it has to work for me.

Sarcococca confusa

Last autumn, I came to the conclusion that my particularly vigorous St. John's Wort (Hypericum) was far too big for its spot and starting to obstruct the path. I took it out and replaced it with a smaller and slower growing Pyracantha, relocated from a constraining container on the decking. This revealed not one, but two Sarcococca confusa, doing their best to keep their end up in the face of the rampant Hypericum.

Sarcococca, sometimes called sweet box or Christmas box, is an evergreen shrub with small, bright green shiny ovate leaves. Sarcococca comes into its own over the cold dark winter months, with tiny, highly perfumed flowers, followed by glossy black berries. This shrub needs to be as close to the door as possible, so you get a good whiff of it every time you go in and out. I replanted one of mine in the walled planter outside the front door, and the other at the end of the border at the back, nearest the cellar door. And by golly - you don't half notice them! The smell hits you first, before you see it. This is perfect, given that it is usually dark when we are going in and out, at this time of year.

Sarcococca confusa - sweet box

Lonicera fragrantissima

This is winter-flowering honeysuckle and is really important for winter pollinators. I only have one client with Lonicera fragrantissima, but it is also ideally located outside the back door to ensure that the garden can be enjoyed in the winter, without having to venture too far away from the house.

It can grow up to more than two metres high over the space of five to ten years though, so is worth pruning annually, as soon as it has finished flowering. This makes sure it doesn't get too tall or congested, and to encourage the development of strong new shoots during the growing season, to bear next year's flowers.

Lonicera fragrantissima - winter-flowering honeysuckle

Hamamelis mollis

Chinese witch hazels have distinctive, spidery-looking flowers, that bloom in late winter or early spring, before coming into leaf. There are a number of cultivars particularly noted for their strong scent. Look out for Hamamelis mollis 'Goldcrest', 'Brevipetala' or even Hamamelis x intermedia 'Vesna'. The leaves also provide striking autumn colour, as an added bonus.

Witch hazels are relatively low-maintenance plants, that do best on slightly acidic soil, in sun or partial shade. They don't tend to need much pruning but any light pruning should be done in the spring, after they have finished flowering.

Chinese witch hazel

Gardening jobs for January

Happy new year, and if this is your first visit to my blog, a very warm welcome! You haven't missed much on here over the last year, so my resolve for 2022 is to post something at least twice a month, starting with a brief checklist of jobs. Here are this month's suggestions.

Shrubs, and flowering plants;

• This is a good time of year to prune deciduous shrubs whilst they are dormant, and you can see the branch and stem structure;

• Prune apple and pear trees this month. Have a look at this earlier blog post for a few tips on older, neglected trees;

• Tidy away dead foliage of herbaceous plants, if it is looking tatty or diseased. Remember though; leaving old seed heads can provide much needed food for birds, and upright stems also make an important visual contribution to the structure of a winter garden;

• Hellebores, or lenten roses, are one of the few star flowering plants during January. Make sure you tidy away any dead foliage to give the blooms optimal opportunity to show themselves;

• If the soil is not too wet or frozen, now is a good time to plant bare-root shrubs or trees. If you are on a tight budget, it is worth noting that it is much more economical to source shrubs bare-rooted than container grown;

• Protect the soil from compaction; don't work or walk on it whilst it is wet, and use planks to access harder-to reach beds or borders.

Fruit and veg;

• Force rhubarb for early, pink tender stems, by covering with an upturned pot or bucket;

• Prune apple and pear trees;

• Clean out your plant pots and seed trays (and green house if you have one) with hot water and citrox;

• Enjoy poring over seed catalogues and planning what you might grow and where, this year. Try and buy from local independent garden centres or suppliers if you can.

Gardening alongside nature;

• Keep bird-feeders topped up. Have a look at this post on feeding birds;

• Leave out some water in a shallow dish for birds. Make sure it doesn't freeze over by popping in a couple of ping-pong balls;

• Clean out nesting boxes ready for spring;

• If you use grit and rock-salt to keep paths and drives free of ice, keep it away from plants and soil.

Don’t let the January Blues get to you. If you aim to go out and spend just fifteen or twenty minutes in the garden, I promise you'll feel better for it. You never know, you may even end up staying out there longer.

What to do, when?

As a gardener, it’s important to remember that no ‘one size fits all’, and the timing of certain tasks needs to align with the prevailing weather conditions in your local area, and even the microclimate within your garden. In general, in Manchester, we are a few weeks to a month behind those in the ‘soft-south’ so the to-do list needs to be tailored accordingly.

Dead-heading the hydrangeas

For example, I might have been inclined to leave the protective mops on the hydrangeas for another couple of weeks, in case we get another hard frost or two. However, over the last two weeks, I decided to go ahead with the de-mopping (dead-heading) task on account of the strong winds having the potential to cause more damage than any frost. Remove the heads just above a pair of healthy leaf buds.

Hydrangeas with their mops

Seed-sowing

The instructions on the backs of my seed packets (probably authored by southerners) are hectoring me in to thinking I should have started sowing my veggies and annuals in February.

I’m trying to resist the seed-sowing temptation for another week or so; it just results in me having loads of seedlings that need to be re-potted and grown on when I’ve run out of space for them inside and it’s too cold to put them outside.

My supposedly fool-proof cosmos seedlings are looking decidedly worse for wear, after being introduced to a cold greenhouse far too early for their liking. Live and learn…

Tomato seedlings; don’t be tempted to sow too early

Pruning Bush Roses

The Forsythia is now in bloom here. Apparently, this is a locally-appropriate sign that it’s time to prune the roses. Actually, I’ve been doing this particular job for a few weeks now, armed with my elbow-length leather gauntlets for the most hostile specimens.

For older bush roses, I have pruned the stems right down to 30cm, cutting to an outwards-facing leaf bud, so new growth forms a well-shaped bush. I have also removed the oldest, woodiest stems right at the base. After pruning, give them a mulch around the base, with a 5cm layer of home-made garden compost or well-rotted manure.

Renovating Climbing Roses

I’m now acquainted with a few climbing roses, and a number of them seem to be a bit congested and out of hand. I suppose I neglected them this time last year, as I retreated into the first lockdown for a few weeks, compounded by a sprained ankle.

Renovating crowded and unruly climbing roses seems a bit daunting at first. You need to be brave. Select around six young, long and healthy-looking stems. Cut the other, old and woody stems right out at ground level. Use a pruning saw if necessary, to remove thicker, older stems neatly, at the base of the plant.

On the remaining half-dozen stems, trim off the tips and shorten any side shoots, to encourage the stems to bush out. Now train and tie in the stems to their supports, so they are each spaced apart but as close to the horizontal position as possible. This might involve bending some longer stems into a zig-zag. Don’t forget to mulch and feed, as with bush roses.

Positioning the stems on the horizontal like this encourages upwards growth from the side shoots, and achieves better overall coverage, and I’m really looking forward to the display it will stimulate.

Looking forward to seeing the climbing roses

Spring is almost here: time to renovate your neglected apple trees!

Thankfully, it looks like our mini-deep freeze is passing, and the crocuses surfacing in my lawn are a very welcome sight indeed. The last couple of weeks haven’t really been gardening weather, but let me assure you that I have not been idle.

This half-term I have been introduced to the Berlin Conference of 1884. I have learned how to form the future tense in French and then pledge to eat a more balanced diet going forward. I now know the difference between isometric and oblique projections of 3D shapes, and I’ve even chosen my GCSE options.

It’s been hard going. I am not a natural motivator of people, particularly turbulent teens who would rather spend the day in bed. Bribes of chocolate buttons and Doritos are not long-lasting, and parent-child relations are becoming more strained with every cabin feverish day that passes. The only time I went into my own garden last week was to bury Einstein, the family hamster, who surprisingly went from sixty to zero overnight. He wasn’t even old by hamster standards.

I went out to work on Friday, for the first time in a long time. I was almost giddy with excitement. Fortunately, the cold snap means I am not too behind. My main tasks at the moment involve tackling a number of neglected apple trees, whilst they are still dormant.

Why prune apple and pear trees?

Established apple and pear trees need pruning every winter to make sure they don’t get too congested. The main aim of this exercise is to maximise the amount of sunlight that can get to the ripening fruit. This year, I’ve taken on a few apple trees in need of a bit of renovation.

Make the correct types of cuts

First up, use clean, sharp secateurs, loppers and a pruning saw, and start off with the standard pruning approach of removing dead, damaged, diseased, crossing or rubbing branches.

The main type of cut that you need for older, congested trees is called a ‘thinning cut’. This is the removal of entire branches or limbs, right up until the point where they meet another branch or the main trunk.

A thinning cut will allow air and light into the tree, but won’t trigger uncontrolled production of thin, non-fruit bearing water shoots like a ‘heading cut’. Avoid heading cuts in old trees. This is where you cut part of the way down a branch. These are used in younger, less established trees, where bushing out needs to be encouraged.

Know your buds

Most apple and pear trees produce fruit on small lateral branches called fruiting spurs. Fruiting buds (also called flower buds) are larger than the wood or growth buds, and they have a downy surface.

Growth buds are smaller, more pointed, and grow flush along the branch. We call the fruiting branches ‘spurs’ because they are small and stubby.

A frosted fruiting spur

On older, neglected trees, the spurs of flower buds can become crowded, resulting in smaller fruit that may not ripen properly. If this looks like the case, prune spur systems to leave only four or five flower buds, which should result in decent sized fruit.

Take it easy

Don’t remove more than a third of the tree’s material in one season. Too many cuts can stress the tree and create too many entry points for disease. In general, it’s better to take a small number of large cuts than a large number of small cuts.

Remember; it took more than one season for the tree to become overgrown and congested so it will take more than one season to rectify. The delayed gratification of playing ‘the long game’ is one of the things I enjoy most about gardening!

Looking forward to the apple blossom

Let me bore you with my (2019) holiday snaps

Rosebay willowherb in the Bernese alps; Eiger and Mönch in far background.

This week I have been embracing all the lockdown clichés; I have subscribed to ‘Duolingo’ in an attempt to salvage my mediocre German language skills and have dusted off my watercolour paints for the first time in nearly ten years. I have no real talent for either foreign languages or painting.

In addition to these pastimes, and with more tangible reward, I have started compiling the 2019 photo album. Compared to 2020, a camping trip to the Lakes, a family holiday to Cornwall and a visit to relatives in Switzerland look like a year of veritable globetrotting. Whilst I drool nostalgically over the Swiss snaps, I thought I’d share a few of the wonderful flowers that we saw whilst hiking.

It is typical of the well-organised and environmentally conscious Swiss to have a marked trail, complete with little metal plaques and educational signs, to help you identify the flowers, and provide more information. What’s more, the trail finished at a marvellous children’s play area that even kept the ‘tween-agers engaged – so something for everyone.

In general, plants categorised as alpines are adapted to shallow, stony soils that are low in nutrients and usually alkaline. They are hardy so can tolerate cold but not excessive wetness - all of these conditions are found on the exposed and free-draining mountain slopes to which they are native.

May and June are most likely the peak flowering season, but there were still many beautiful blooms worth photographing when we were there, (albeit slightly out of focus at times, for which I apologise). Here is a selection of specimens in flower in the Bernese Alps during August 2019.

Alchemilla alpina – Alpine Lady’s Mantle

This is a close relative of the Alchemilla mollis which most people are familiar with; it tends to run a bit wild in UK gardens, but the downy leaves of both species have a lovely way of catching and holding single rain drops.

Alchemilla alpina

Ajuga reptans

This hardy evergreen Ajuga didn’t seem that similar to the specimens I’m familiar with. However, it’s worth remembering that those planted in gardens in suburban south Manchester are likely to be specifically bred and named cultivated varieties (‘cultivars’). These may not necessarily bare much resemblance to the species in its native surrounds.

Ajuga reptans

Sempervivum montanum - Alpine House Leeks

The mountain houseleek stores sugars within the water in its thick succulent leaves. This acts as an anti-freeze agent, to prevent it freezing in the harsh alpine winters.

Sempervivum montanum

Aconitum napellus - Monkshood

On first viewing, I pondered over whether this was some type of alpine delphinium, so I was somewhat alarmed when I discovered that I had failed to identify the severely toxic Monkshood. Ingestion of, or skin contact with Monkshood has been known to result in death due to multiple organ failure, so best give it a wide berth.

Aconitum napellus

Carlina acaulis – Alpine thistle.

These handsome thistles have short stems, to prevent them getting too battered and broken in the wind. The flowers also close up in wet weather, to protect the pollen from the rain.

Carlina acaulis

Gentianella campestris – Field gentian

These pretty little pale purple gentians are generally found in grazed short grassland, so their presence is probably thanks to those alpine cows. I don’t believe their colour has any connection to why the Milka cow is lilac.

Gentianella campestris

You might think that poring over the historic holiday snaps might throw me into the depths of despair and frustration during a lockdown, but on the contrary; I’ve really enjoyed returning to the memories, and it has encouraged me to look up and commit to memory a few more alpine flowers. I’d always intended to do this but had just never quite got around to it.

Frost; friend or foe?

Wrap up warm, folks; it appears that we’re experiencing a mini ‘Beast from the East’. According to the Met Office (and I’m sure they know), this happens when Scandinavia experiences a period of high pressure, combined with easterly winds from the continent. When these conditions combine in winter, cold air is drawn into the UK from the Eurasian landmass, resulting in a harsh cold snap similar to that experienced in February 2018.

Wise beings that they are, perennial plants (that is, plants those whose lifecycle last for two or more years) enter a period of dormancy during the winter. Dormancy is a state of temporary inactivity, or minimal activity, generally as a response to adverse growing conditions. Plants are not dead during this time, but instead adopt strategies to conserve energy, such as dropping their leaves, or die-back of above-ground foliage.

As temperatures drop and days shorten, plants accumulate starches, sugars and amino acids within their cells. The increased concentration of these chemical compounds enables the liquid within plant cell membranes to thicken and becomes more gel-like. This slows down all the normal metabolic processes within the plant, thereby conserving energy, and also acts as a kind of antifreeze by lowering the freezing point of the plant’s tissues. Much below zero though, and the formation of ice crystals within most plant cells will rupture and damage the plant’s tissues, due to the expansion of water on freezing.

A rise in spring temperatures can encourage perennials to break their dormancy and put on tender new growth. If this is followed up with a sudden frost, the new growth is particularly susceptible to frost damage. This can have a devastating effect on fruit harvests if a frost occurs after fruit trees have formed flower buds, especially when those buds are in the later stages of development.

Hard, prolonged or sudden frosts can cause the foliage of even evergreen plants to die and turn brown. In these cases, don’t be tempted to cut back the dead or discoloured growth too soon, as it can offer a bit of protection to the rest of the plant. Wait until the frost season has passed and the plant has come back into new growth, before trimming off any unsightly frost damage and applying a liquid feed.

It’s not all gloom and doom though. Frosts can have some beneficial effects in the garden. For heavy clay soils, freeze-thaw action of water within the soil plays a crucial role in breaking up larger clods of earth, that might otherwise be impenetrable to plant roots. Hard frosts can also disrupt the lifecycles of some common garden pests.

Parsnips, beetroots and other bulky root crops that are left in the ground until after a freeze tend to have a sweeter taste, due to the increased concentration of sugars within their tissues. Brassicas such as cabbages and Brussels sprouts harvested after a frosty period will also have a sweeter flavour, for the same reason.

Fruit trees require a certain amount of chilling time during their dormant season, in order to provide a healthy harvest, the following year. This is generally the time during which the air temperature is between zero and six degrees centigrade, so still above freezing. This is also the time to be pruning your fruit trees, but more on that another time. For now, I’d still just recommend sitting in front of the fire with a cuppa!

Garden jobs for a rainy day

If your gardener sends their apologies due to inclement weather conditions, this is not because they are pathetic; your gardener is an outdoorsy person with appropriate clothing but there is good reason for not gardening in the rain.

Look after the soil, and it will look after the plants

At the beginning of this year, I squeaked (by the skin of my teeth), a commendation in the RHS Level 3 exam paper on ‘The root environment, plant nutrition and growing systems’ – i.e. the all-important brown stuff, without which, no life on this planet could be supported.

My awe and respect for the soil increased with each new nugget of knowledge I acquired; about its physical and chemical characteristics, and the vital roles played by the micro and macro organisms contained within it. It’s crucially important that gardeners take good care of their soil, and one of the ways they can do this is by only working and cultivating the soil when it is of a friable, crumbly texture.

Working during, or too soon after rainfall damages the structure of the soil; high water content reduces the soil’s weight-bearing capacity and it can easily become compacted due to collapse of the soil’s pore spaces. Compaction makes it difficult for plant roots to grow and access the air they need for respiration. Compaction also leads to poor drainage, making the waiting time even longer, before cultivation becomes possible.

If the soil is sticking to your boots, caking on to your tools, or can be moulded into a ball, it is too wet to be working it, so find another job to do.

Keep off the grass!

Most people know that you shouldn’t mow wet grass. This is because the mower blades tend to tear at wet blades rather than cutting them cleanly. Wet blades of grass may also be bent over with the with the weight of the water, so the outcome of mowing a wet lawn will at best be a patchy uneven cut. Clumps of wet grass clippings also have a tendency to block the mower.

Walking over wet grass can result in the compaction of the underlying soil. This inhibits healthy grass growth, and generally makes for a muddy, messy and eventually bald, lawn.

What can I do in the rain?

Here are a few suggestions for keeping busy, even when it’s pouring;

• Weed the cracks between patio flags and paving stones;

• Prune shrubs or dead-head any flowers that are accessible from areas of hard-standing. Look out for and remove any dead branches or limbs that could cause further damage if they were to break off – these can become heavy when wet;

• Make sure any grates and drains are free of leaves and other debris;

• Clean out and tidy your shed or greenhouse;

• Clean and sharpen your tools, and make sure they are stored appropriately and safely;

• Elevate pots and containers on bricks or pot feet, to prevent water-logging;

• Look out for any areas where water accumulates, on beds, borders and the lawn. Once the soil is dry enough, dig in additional organic matter, to aerate the soil and improve drainage. Water-logged lawns may need hollow-tine aeration;

• Turn your compost heap, or move compost from one bay to the next, depending on what type of composting system you use;

• Look through your existing seed packets, check the dates, plan what you want to plant next year and order new seeds if necessary. Make yourself a chart or calendar of what to do and when, for when the sowing and growing season starts next year. You can even look into downloading an App to help you with this, if you are so inclined;

• Sit down in front of the fire with a cup of tea, and catch up on all your gardening journals and magazines.

I know which one of those sounds most desirable to me!