Perennial edibles

When drastic action is needed

SPRING may seem a long way off but if you prune your wisteria now, you should have masses of beautiful long hanging flower racemes in a few months’ time.

It’s the king of climbers. Its twining stems scale house walls and pergolas, arbours and trellises, producing a riot of colour from April to June from its elegant, hanging blooms, in shades mainly in blue to violet, although you can also grow white and pink varieties.

Over here, forms of the Chinese and Japanese wisteria are the most common, thriving in sunny positions in relatively good soil and vigorously twining up to 9m (30ft).

But to keep them looking good, you need to prune them preferably twice a year.

Pruning in summer

Make the first prune in July or August, after flowering, cutting back the whippy green shoots of the current year’s growth to five or six leaves.

Wisterias flower on short spurs coming from the main stems, and need help to encourage flower buds to form. The midsummer prune removes excess growth, allowing the plant to focus on producing buds and enabling sunlight to reach the branches, so ripening the wood. The summer prune will help keep this vigorous climber in check and will help stop it invading guttering and windows while encouraging new flowering shoots rather than just foliage.

Pruning in winter

Winter pruning is basically just tidying FRUIT and perennial herbs have everything going for them. Just nip into the patio with a muesli bowl for some tasty rasps or blueberries, or pick a sprig of rosemary and a couple of bay leaves for the kitchen.

These plants need little attention, never leave a bare patch and serve you for years. The trick is to choose the right plant for the right place, container, bed or wall, and provide good compost and growing conditions.

Container growing is a little more challenging than the open ground. You’ll have very little homemade compost, so must resort to commercial growing media compost. Sadly no reliably consistent, organic, peat-free, material has been developed yet.

Annual trials by Which? Gardening give the best indicators of current best buys. New Horizons usually features highly on its list. Whatever you choose, check that it’s a fresh 2019 bag as the material continues ageing, losing invaluable nutrients. And reject any over-heavy ones that haven’t been sheltered from the rain.

Fertility is essential for most perennials, but some, such as strawberries, are a little less demanding.

Simply put these shallow-rooted delights in containers or even hanging baskets close to the back door. Just keep them watered, especially when fruits are forming.

And some herbs are undemanding. Rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis, needs fairly poor, well-drained, gritty soil, and upright forms sit well in pots. You could let prostrate varieties spread over the edge of a raised bed or wall to soften it.

Creeping thyme does the same job for edgings; I planted some in pockets of soil in my potager’s slabbed pathing and they’re now almost smothering the stone sides of the beds. Flavoursome Silver Queen and Foxley are variegated and also do well potted in gritty compost.