The garden in December
Kari-Astri Davies hangs up her hoe in favour of making a festive wreath, and considers the virtues of variegation
As usual this year, I have done some of the things I set out to achieve, but other gardening tasks will have to wait until next year. It is time to down tools and take a break.
Winners and losers
The gardening year has been dominated by slugs and snails. Previously, I have had minor issues with molluscs nibbling here and there, but not wholesale defoliation. I wonder if perhaps last year’s hot weather curtailed their activity, leading to a population explosion this year.
The onslaught started in early spring, then later-emerging plants, including dahlias, had to be dug up and grown on in pots because of the constant razing of the shoots. Lush plantings of hostas were reduced to empty spaces. Mollusc favourites were ‘Sum and Substance’, ‘Guacamole’, H. nigrescens and ‘Honeybells’. Less fancied were Hosta sieboldiana var. elegans, ‘Devon Green’ and giants ‘T. Rex’ and ‘Empress Wu’; left holey, but largely intact. Growers recommend garlic spray, so maybe I should try it next year.
On the upside, I have a new, small glass greenhouse and cold frame for bringing on and overwintering plants. My auriculas can finally go under cover.
We now have a long-legged Jack Russell. She is fairly good at staying off the flower beds, but has worn a muddy path in the lawn chasing tennis balls.
Festive decoration
This year, I will be making a Christmas wreath, reusing the plastic base from one I bought last year. It is oasis-based, which is not very environmentally friendly, but at least I can use it once more before it crumbles.
Keeping it simple, the main material will be mostly the softer-to-work-with Norway spruce and a bit of glaucous Blue spruce from the garden. These now tall, healthy ex-Christmas trees are tangible links to other people’s family Christmases before our own time here.
I will intersperse the fir with tree ivy and holly, preferably berried, although the birds have been stripping the branches early this year. I may add a few rosemary sprigs too. The cones from last year will be reinstated and the bow reattached, providing a warm welcome for festive visitors.
Silvers and golds
I have not been keen on plants with variegated leaves. If challenged, I would admit to a variegated weigela,
“Black are my steps on silver sod; Thick blows my frosty breath abroad; And tree and house, and hill and lake, Are frosted like a wedding cake” Robert louis stevenson, ‘Winter-Time’
which came with the garden. Gold-leaved plants have never really attracted me either.
However, I have finally made a small amount of headway in the copse at the end of the garden, taming some of the ground. The trees, now bare, allow more dappled light in: it is a special, slightly wild, place. It occurred to me that some subtle variegation might work.
Evergreen Euonymus fortunei ‘Wolong Ghost’ has been planted. The narrow, dark green leaves have a fine, central white vein. The idea is that it will clamber up trees and along the ground.
On a recent walk along an old shady holloway, wood millet, Milium effusum, was growing. Bowles’ golden grass is a golden-leaved version; once a must-have plant, but now out of fashion. Being semi-evergreen, would it bring a gentle wash of winter colour?
I have been to a garden where ground-hugging ivy had been neatly trimmed into waves along a pathway. Perhaps I could introduce a lightly variegated Hedera helix, such as ‘Silver King’, and manicure the ivy already romping over the ground?
Native evergreen iris, Iris foetidissima, is a good doer in dry shade: there are several strong clumps already in the copse. Should I track down the variegated form, or is that a variegated step too far?
“At Christmas I no more desire a rose Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled mirth; But like of each thing that in season grows” William Shakespeare, ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’