Handful of brave plants blooming
There’s talk of putting gardens to bed, yet nature never sleeps! The processes of biology continue as plants die back, shed leaves, change colour, advertise berries – and bulbs busy themselves below for their spring shows.
A handful of brave flowers are left, islands in isolation calling for attention. The tall salvia ‘Amistad’ has been defiant in the face of north winds and frost. Three pink-white blooms have appeared on the ‘New Moon’ rose that shares wall space with a vivid red cotoneaster. Both plants have wrapped themselves around a wall that’s the remains of the original cottage pigsty (and one-time household privy!). I’d be happy to recycle food waste via a garden pig, but I can’t imagine life as it must have been here a few decades ago without indoor plumbing!
The astrantias planted early this year keep on giving and even a few white Japanese anemone flowers have held on to their spires. The bright orange of Iris foetidissima seed heads are glowing in a dark margin.
There’s a seemingly endless supply of fallen leaves that I put either in a tumbling composter or in a pile in a sheltered corner. Both eventually become leaf mould and the latter provides winter habitats for insects, frogs and hedgehogs which, along with the dead wood pile, I leave as undisturbed as possible.
With the trees bare, it’s a good time to check for any weak, damaged or overhanging branches that can be taken down. I should mulch the borders as soon as possible so that the bulbs grow through it, rather than trying to work around them once they’re up. I like to leave as many flower spires in place as I can – anemones, fennel, buddleja – for some winter structure. Somehow, the skeleton of the garden can be beautiful in its own way, as well as promising more life in the spring.
The frosts and sparkling low sun have been pretty, but the temperature undulates and there’ll be muddy days ahead. Time to give the garden tools and empty pots a spa treatment – I read one idea of putting the trowels and the rest in a bucket containing a mix of sand and oil, so I’ll try that.