As our gardens erupt with fiery displays, it’s time to take stock
As winter descends now is the ideal time to tidy up the borders, says our expert Agnes Stevenson. And a little effort now will pay dividends come spring
For most of the past week I’ve been squelching about in the dampest part of the garden, trying to remove the montbretia that’s made itself at home here.
At times it has felt like a losing battle as, no matter how many corms I remove, there are still more to dig up.
Montbretia is a member of the crocosmia family but, unlike its sophisticated relatives, including fiery red “Lucifer” and dusky orange “Emily Mckenzie”, it’s a bit of a thug.
Given a mild climate and damp soil, and it quickly turns rogue, multiplying so fast that it chokes out everything in its path.
Some roadsides in the west of Ireland have become so infested with it that native plants have been squeezed out. And in England and Wales it is an offence to introduce it into the wild.
In Scotland the restrictions are not quite so tight, but living in a rural community I’m still concerned that corms tossed on to the compost heap could find their way into the margins of nearby fields. So I’m being careful about how I dispose of the montbretia I dig up, tipping every piece I unearth into my brown bin, where it will be taken away and turned into compost at a temperature that’s hot enough to destroy it.
Along with the montbretia, I’m also getting rid of perennials weeds. Couch grass is very invasive and trying to extract tiny fragments of root from lumps of sticky clay is an essential part of keeping on top of the problem.
Meanwhile, the peonies are putting on fiery display before their foliage falls. The azaleas, too, are showing spectacular leaf colours, while the Japanese quince is covered in golden fruits and the two apples that are the sum total of the crop on my single tree are an attractive warm orange.
If this tree is ever going to perform then I’m going to have to move it during the dormant season to a brighter spot in the garden.
One tree that won’t be with us much longer is the chestnut. This stands just outside our boundary and is a constant delight. But it has been ailing for a couple of years and it dropped a huge limb into our garden during the last storm.
Now tree surgeons have inspected the chestnut and are coming back in a couple of weeks to fell it before the whole thing topples over.
We will be sorry to see it go and I had already started collecting conkers from under its canopy in anticipation of its demise although I’ll have to be very patient if I want to see any of these grow into a tree to match the original in stature.