Let there be light in the greenhouse!
The greenhouse is overflowing with perennial cuttings and divisions, overwintering fuchsias and so many salvias. The air was filled with the scent of sage from them. Once I’d cleaned out the gutters and scrubbed the green slime off the windows, the glass sparkled and my precious plants had light once again! As the greenhouse is unheated, I store dried begonias in cardboard egg boxes in a cool dark drawer in our spare room. I’ve managed to salvage several tubers from this year’s purchases, surprisingly mature for new plants.
In the shady garden, I’ve trimmed off the hellebore and epimedium leaves to make way for the upcoming flowers. Having cleared away deciduous foliage, I applied bark mulch and after a jolly good sweep, this area looks pristine and smells divine! Leaf fall has been so late I’m still clearing the shingle paths.
The last of the perennials collapsed and have been pruned to ground level, which meant I was able to get to the back of the borders for winter pruning. I’ve made a start on the climbing roses, which had become very top heavy. With everything more or less dormant now, I can take my time pruning the remaining roses and the overgrown ivy, akebia and clematis along the fences. After that, it will be time to mulch; there’s nothing quite like a thick, dark layer of well-rotted manure on your herbaceous borders to make your heart swell with satisfaction!
Last month it was time to hang out all the long peanut feeders. Although some people consider parakeets a pest, we love them, and look forward to their noisy boisterous antics when little else is going on in the garden. Their feeders are far enough away from our regular feeding station so the little birds can still feed in peace.
During winter the front garden has more to offer than the back. Contorted hazel looks amazing especially at night, adorned with seasonal fairy lights. I’ve replaced summer colour with white Christmas roses. Evergreen honey spurge, fatsia ‘Spider’s Web’, silken miscanthus tassels and towering Torbay palm add a bit of drama. The living wall display of colourful evergreen grasses brightens up the front entrance.
But it’s not all doom and gloom in the back garden. Fuchsia thymifolia, hesperantha, abutilon and mahonia ‘Soft Caress’ are all in flower. Spring bulbs are beginning to peep through the leaf litter in the borders. Evergreens come into their own now, from cool pittosporum ‘Irene Paterson’ to wine-coloured ‘Tom Thumb’; colourful dogwoods, lords-andladies (Arum maculatum) and variegated trachelospermum all provide interest. The miscanthus in the central bed is having its last hurrah before it starts degrading and flying all over the garden! If I had a bigger garden, the one shrub I’d love to grow would be Garrya elliptica; a friend of mine has the most beautiful specimen, covered in silken tassels.