Notes from my garden

Alexandra Campbell considers what jobs are worth doing over winter.

IT’S time to wrap up for the winter. On the whole, it’s rather nice to stay inside and almost forget about the garden. However, November to Feburary can be an excellent time to get ahead with those gardening jobs you’ve been putting off – such as sorting the compost heap and pruning shrubs or trees.

I once heard Fergus Garrett, the famous head gardener from Great Dixter, explain what the Great Dixter gardeners do in November, December and January.

Firstly, Fergus keeps a flexible timetable. He doesn’t want gardeners working on wet soil, because wet soil compacts.

This squashes the oxygen out of it, and the microorganisms that keep the soil healthy can’t function properly.

If he does have to work on wet soil, he throws a board across the bed and kneels on it to spread the weight.

The main work at Great Dixter in winter is pruning of hedges, trees and shrubs. It’s a good time to prune, because everything is relatively dormant.

And you can see individual branches and stems so much more easily when the leaves are off the trees.

I am not personally a fan of what I call “Chainsaw Man Pruning”. After a couple of hours of “Vrr” and “Vrroow” all shrubs are reduced just to the same size and shape.

The result, next year, will be thick and clumpy regrowth and the loss of all flowers that developed over the past summer.

Hide the chainsaw and go out with a saw and some loppers. Look for the thick, older branches and try to get right into the centre of the shrub to take them out as close to the ground as possible.

You’ll get a much airier shrub, and you won’t lose the flowers on the branches that remain.

You can reduce the height and spread of the shrub,

too. Simply remove the highest or most sprawling branches in the same way, taking them out as close to the ground as possible.

An airy shrub will be healthier and less likely to suffer from pests or disease.

You can take out up to a third of the shrub this way, so you will have quite a pile of branches on the ground.

Find the chainsaw again, as it will be useful in chopping them up for firewood (or even if you’re just taking it all to the tip).

Trees, too, should have whole branches taken out. If you cut a branch halfway along its length, then there will be lots of re-growth where it’s been cut.

This looks ugly and congested, and, once again, a congested tree is more likely to fall victim to pests or diseases. So take a whole branch from where it meets the trunk.

And do get a tree surgeon if your trees are big or old. It is expensive – usually several hundred pounds, depending on the number and type of tree.

But climbing trees and lopping large branches is dangerous if you’re not properly trained.

Please don’t ask a general handy person to do it. I knew one once who fell out of the tree and was injured on some garden railings.

A qualified tree surgeon will also be able to spot any possible problems in your trees – trees don’t live for ever, and sometimes an old tree will rot from the inside.

To find a qualified tree surgeon, contact the Arboricultural Association through www.trees.org.uk. They have a nationwide listing.

And you can let Chainsaw Man do the hedge. If you want to support wildlife, leave hedges while they still have berries, as they’re food for the birds. n