Chipping away at the work

Without the wonderful colours of summer, an evergreen garden can still look vibrant and alive throughout the winter months. However, it needs a final tidy about now and so we spent last weekend doing just that.

We replanted one of the beds earlier in the year, which included adding a second Fatsia japonica. The existing fatsia is hardy and is just coming into flower, but the young one needs protecting for the first couple of winters. We’ve surrounded it

with a log-lattice wall to act as a wind and frost break.

This year’s been wonderful for the yuccas. All five produced at least two flowering stems, but they‘ve started to go over so we reluctantly cut the stems out.

The pond also needed tidying. We pulled out the excess water-soldiers and oxygen plants and extracted as much of the decaying lily stems as we could. The water hawthorn flowers are still as beautiful as ever, but the wildlife has exhausted itself after the long, warm summer and largely disappeared.

After tidying and disposing of the rubbish, we topped up the beds with 4,000 litres of bark chipping. It was back-breaking, but maintaining wellestablished mulch is the best frost protection you can give your plants and well worth the work and money.

So, with the garden now tidied and winter ready, we can enjoy it from the comfort (and warmth) of the house. Have a very good Christmas!

The Hintons’ Dudley garden has a backbone of shrubs and conifers, and a beautiful selection of herbaceous perennials in-between.

Our yuccas were an awesome sight – this is them in their heyday this summer

Left, the water hawthorn is exquisite, and right, late escallonia flowers

Left, our new fatsia, which we hope will reach the dizzy heights of the old one, above