Crop of reasons to be cheerful all year
If an excuse were needed to rise with the larks every summer morning and get the show on the road – plants can provide it. A spot of sunshine, reasonable temperature and an environment that is relaxing and full of interest, can be such a heady cocktail. This can work in an open yard, a porch, or acres of garden. Granted, it cannot always be achieved overnight. Circumstances, time, financial outlay, and other factors are involved, but you can formulate a plan to transform an outdoor space into your nirvana.
It begins with container plants of your choice, preferably specimens suitable for that environment and not necessarily flowering plants. Where space is limited, growing a selection of dwarf fruits and vegetables can be just as rewarding. Where it is abundant the result can be a dream to enter.
Flowering plants, be they perennial or annual, play a key part in this because they are visually appealing and possibly fragrant but better still, they attract insects in search of sustenance. When we provide generous supplies of nectar, word quickly spreads throughout the local insect community and a further feature of interest develops.
But this aspect is not just confined to a few weeks in summer. Bee species are always welcome, and the year’s first sighting can be on a relatively warm January day, followed by continuous activity into deepest autumn.
Any planting to encourage regular visits must bear this in mind. So, the garden becomes a source of sustenance for visiting pollinators with a bold menu to match.
Their main course from December to March is the winter heather (Erica carnea).
Absolutely covered in white and pink swathes of bloom, it runs barely 30 centimetres tall alongside the driveway.
Other choices for early foraging insects at that time include two fragrant winter shrubs. The pink
Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’ and golden racemes of Mahonia ‘Charity’. Meanwhile, the pinktinged flowers of a winter cherry (Prunus ‘Autumnalis Rosea’) which offers continuous flowering from November to March has quietly performed in the background.
At the beginning of a new year, the winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) blooms are closely followed by the myriad offerings of other bulbs and early herbaceous plants, such as hellebore and lungwort (pulmonaria).