With expert Agnes Stevenson
Those catalogues are oh so tempting but, warns our expert Agnes Stevenson, be sure to plan carefully and buy only what your garden can accommodate
The winter cherry that grows in a large pot has flowered for the first time. Tiny, pink-tinged white flowers, no bigger than snowflakes, now stud the bare branches, transforming the view from the kitchen window.
At this time of the year, when days are dark and gardening plans frequently have to be abandoned because of heavy rain and biting winds, it helps to have something cheerful to look at if stuck indoors.
Another way to keep busy is by working your way through seed catalogues, planning what vegetables and flowers you will be growing in the months ahead.
But this can be problematic. I’ve only got as far as “C” in the alphabetically-ordered selections of the latest catalogue to come through the door and already I’ve almost run out of space on the order form.
I couldn’t get past Astilbe, Astrantia or Aqueligia without ordering some. And then there was the tempting offer of a mixed packet of Acers. Who knows what I’d end up with if I grew a batch of these, so they went on the order form too.
And so it continued through the Bs, where Bellis, Berberis, Bergenia and Bupleurum longifolum (tiny yellow flowers, copper-coloured bracts, who could resist?) were all added to the list. But it was only when I found myself ordering both white and blue versions of Camassia that I realised I’d need a space as large as Hampden Park to bring on all the seedlings, and I still hadn’t started on edible seeds.
How do you choose what to grow when you could grow almost everything? A good way to stop over-committing is by working out what space is available. Seeds will germinate in a tiny pot on a windowsill, but once they start to grow you have to move them on, first into seed trays and then into larger containers until they are large enough to go outside.
This is fine if you’ve got a greenhouse or cold frame, but if you are relying on your windowsills then pretty quickly your seedlings will have taken over the whole house.
While I’m debating where to put a greenhouse in my garden, I’ll be relying this spring on a heated propagator indoors and clear plastic storage boxes, doubling as cold frames, to hold the young plants.
What this all means is I need to concentrate this year on those plants that can be hardened off quickly and don’t need cosseting in heated conditions, which is why I’ll be sticking to hardy perennials, shrubs and trees and the less-fussy kinds of salads and vegetables.