HATCH YOUR PLAN
WHETHER PRUNING OR PLANNING PLANTING FOR THE YEAR AHEAD, THERE’S PLENTY TO DO IN THE GARDEN THIS MONTH
AT this time of the year, perhaps more than any other, the gardener’s progress depends on the weather. If we’re in the middle of a cold snap when the ground is as hard as iron and your water butt is like a brick, you might as well forget gardening properly and do a bit of forward planning.
It’s a funny thing, planning. The premise is that by careful forethought you can avoid pitfalls later on in the season.
But planning can also remove the impulsive joy from gardening.
So don’t plan with an inflexibility that becomes stultifying. Instead, use this time of year to fire your enthusiasm by poring over catalogues of treasures that do not yet occur in your garden. Make fitting them into the picture a pleasure rather than a chore.
By all means plan a particular border – think about it in terms of plant suitability, height, colour and shape. But allow yourself a bit of elasticity so you can change your mind at planting time.
Of course, even if we are in the middle of an unexpected deep freeze there are some things you can do – like making sure birds do not go short of food and water.
If heavy snowfall is bending the boughs of evergreens and conifers, knock it off, and try to do it while the snow is still soft.
If the weather is mild, try digging over the vegetable patch but take it slowly. Dig for no more than 15 minutes to start with, then up it to half an hour. Take breaks, and don’t use a massive spade.
If the ground is not wet or frozen, now is the ideal time of year for turning it to expose insect eggs to birds and break up any big clods of earth. If lighter work appeals, turn to rose pruning. Only hybrid teas and floribundas – otherwise known as bush roses – need really hard pruning. Cut them back to about knee height. Shrub roses can be treated more leniently. But with all of them, take out dead wood first. One or two older stems can be removed too, but that is as much as you need to do with shrub roses. Adopt the same principle with the bush roses, but then cut all the remaining stems to knee height, trying to make the cuts above an outwardfacing bud. This way you’re sure to have a rosy outlook for the coming gardening year.
...don’t plan with an inflexibility that becomes stultifying