LIMITS TO WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY – WITH TOM PATTINSON
Year-round colour in our garden comes from permanent plantings of shrubs, sub shrubby plants and herbaceous perennials. This is boosted by annuals and biennials for spring and summer bedding or containers.
Our current emphasis on hardy perennials is because the window of opportunity for the bare-rooted planting of such specimens has limits.
We will soon have to devote more time to raising half hardy annuals and vegetables from seed.
I’m revisiting shrubs thought to be smothering neighbouring plants, in different borders throughout the garden, and deciding whether they should be dug up and replanted elsewhere or left in-situ.
Bare-rooted planting of any new deciduous perennials is still possible.
This includes fruit or ornamental trees and bushes, also roses.
If they’re purchased via mail order and their arrival coincides with frost, they’ll survive a few days with the roots in a bucket of water, under cover.
Get plenty of organic material into a generous planting hole and water it before the plant is introduced to the scene.
This ensures that the roots are surrounded by a moist environment.
Whatever you are planting make the soil firm, using heel and toe if necessary, and consider using sturdy supports for young trees until they develop their own anchorage.
If you are moving a sizeable tree or shrub to another spot in the garden, remember that you don’t have to carry it there.
Get it onto a tough piece of material that slides easily and drag it along.
If the re-siting of a large plant has been executed according to the book, it will emerge from the winter rest period and get on with growing.
Another delicious discovery on the Italian sparkling route to pink pleasure, this one’s sleek with depth and fruitiness. Sylphlike bubbles, with white peach and fruity aromas tiptoe onto the tongue then extend into a cascade of ripe red berries topped with creamy peach and a touch of citrus, and deepen on the fresh, zingy finish.