COOL PRUNINGS

We are in the depths of winter but there are jobs to be done to prepare for when the days lengthen

Ialways feel there comes a point midsummer when all seems still and calm in the garden. I don’t mean the kind of days when there’s no breeze – this is like time is standing still. I think this feeling comes from the sunlight and warm temperatures having reached their peak. There’s no more growing weather to come for the rest of the year and the garden is holding its breath before letting out a big gasp of air, signalling the unwind is about to begin.

I’m getting a similar feeling just now but in reverse.

Although there is interest to be seen through evergreen shrubs and topiary, colourful winter bedding and from winter flowering shrubs such as the witch hazel, it’s still a limited palette. This time of year definitely sees the garden at its quietest.

We’re into winter now, the days are more dark than light, meaning I’m spending more time indoors than out with hardly ever a chance to get my hands dirty.

It can feel a bit gloomy at times but I still can’t help feeling this is actually the most exciting time of the year.

We’re past the shortest day and every day the world gets a little brighter. The only way is up, quite literally, as soon plants will start growing again.

This it is folks, we’re at the start of the new gardening year. One of the first jobs for me is going through the catalogues and deciding what I’ll be growing in the veg plot.

I could have done this a lot sooner as some of them were dropping through the letter box at the end of last year but I deliberately like to wait until now.

With dreams of colourful lettuce plants in the ground, munching peas straight from the pod and the scent of herbs in the air as I brush past them I don’t think there is any better gardening job to start off the year.

Especially if it’s beside a warm fire with a mug of tea and it’s cold and wet outside.

While I’m at it the next seed catalogue I’ll be flicking through will be for selecting colourful annuals.

I love growing a selection of these plants that basically grow, flower and die all in the one year. They’ll brighten up your garden right until the first frosts in autumn, when Scotland will become just too cold for them to continue.

They’re great for making a bright seasonal display in a dedicated border or just grow a few such as Cosmos, Calendula (Scotch Marigold), Amaranthus (love-lies-bleeding) or Moluccella (bells of Ireland) for plugging gaps. They can be sown direct to the soil once this begins to warm up in spring or, if you want, experience the thrill of sowing a packet of seeds in a tray and watch them germinate before nurturing and growing them on for planting out. Hardy annuals are ideal for beginners.

I haven’t yet completed all my garden tidy from last year as I left some material from my herbaceous plants uncut to enjoy their dried out foliage over the winter.

It doesn’t work for every plant, the likes of the Day-Lily (Hemerocalis) just collapses into a mess so I get that tidied up pretty quick.

But the seed heads of Echinacea look lovely especially with a bit of frost on them.

Grasses are great for this too but hang off from cutting their foliage back just a little longer as this will help give the crown of the plant some protection if the winter gets tough.

By the end of January I’ll be getting around to carrying out one of my favourite tasks – winter pruning.

If you grow autumn raspberries then quite simply cut down all the stems to just above the ground.

New growth will begin from spring which will go on to produce new canes that will bear fruit for us.

Deciduous shrubs that have become too big or out of shape will benefit from some renovation pruning, removing thicker and older stems hard back.

When doing this I generally only remove one in four stems or there will be nothing left to get the plant growing again.

All these jobs are all with the weeks and months ahead in mind, but don’t be fooled into thinking there’s nothing going on just now.

Already, underground the snowdrops are moving, getting ready to give us the first seasonal display of the year in a few weeks’ time.

In sunnier parts of the garden there are visible signs of them too, with the tips of their green shoots starting to poke through the ground. When the ground isn’t frosty I like to apply a layer of mulch around the groupings of snowdrops in my garden, improving the soil without disturbing the bulbs.

I find this fresh layer of my own garden compost or leaf mould also helps to set them off that wee bit better.

And they say us gardeners don’t do much in the winter!

Brian Cunningham is a presenter on the BBC’s Beechgrove Garden. Follow him on Twitter @ gingergairdner

Witch hazel is blanketed with a layer of snow.

Snowdrops are already beginning to move under the wintry ground.

Now’s the time to plan for colourful annuals like Amaranthus.