With the turning of the year, we look towards another busy time in our gardens. But January nestles between the gardening seasons, and we all need to garden in 2025 with some achievable resolutions.
This year we need to try and be more sustainable, this sounds very worthy, but my biggest failing is my zeal for planting seeds too early and in huge numbers. Gardeners are prone to this optimism, but this approach uses extra heating, lighting, compost. If we waited until mid spring we'd reduce consumption and save money.
Half the seed doesn’t germinate and a lot that does is leggy before it is planted on. It’s just that as gardeners we are always looking forward, and the spring is so temptingly on the horizon, we’ve got to learn patience this year and sow our seeds at the correct time of year.
Next is the need to be a lot tidier and recycle a lot more. I would imagine we already have a good selection of pots and seed trays to use, so we just need to keep them washed and ready for use. A mild gardening detergent such as Citrox, will bring pots back to a pest free and usable condition. Also, this month have a good tidy up and thoroughly clean your greenhouse and shed, which will pay big dividends later on when the garden needs your full focus.
I must be the untidiest gardener in Yorkshire. So, this month I will be going through all my tools and accessories cleaning and storing them whilst trying to rationalize my storage of everything. The more sorted now, the less effort later. Storage solutions and potting benches are available at this time of year in garden centres across the county, so now will be a good time to try to improve the efficiency and accessibility of your garden sundries.
Any tools that we don’t need anymore can be donated to local gardening charities such as Ripon walled garden, that does so much to support so many people through gardening. Just contact them first to make sure they can use what you are offering.
Finally, as the year turns, I’m going organic in my approach to pest control. Mainly by growing plants strongly, in the right conditions, and the right place so they can naturally fight off any invaders. Just by feeding the birds throughout the seasons, we can give ourselves an army of willing volunteers to decimate greenfly populations, a bird box with two clutches of chicks kept my roses spotless last summer. So bring on 2025 and I’ll update you through the year as to how my resolutions pan out.
Plant of the month
Hellebores
As heralds of spring, snowdrops hold the title, but a close second comes hellebores. These immensely tough perennials are just the thing to lift our spirits at this time of year. My personal favourites are Harvington hybrids which produce, plain coloured, speckled and doubles blooms in a range of shades, from pure white, through apricot, deep pink and through to pewter coloured blooms. At this time of year, cut off the old foliage to reveal the emerging buds and fresh green shoots and enjoy these hardy jewels.
Garden to visit
For a tour de force in winter interest, the Winter Garden at Harlow Carr is matchless in Yorkshire. Beautiful combinations of flowers, foliage and stems lift this garden to a new height as it goes into winter. A truly inspirational space to wander through and savour what can be achieved at a time of year when most people have packed away their garden shed for the winter. I guarantee that you will come away awed by the vibrancy produced at this time of year.
Q&A’s
I’d like to grow more perennial plants this year and use them in containers. Can you recommend any that will give a long flowering season.
Lots of gardeners are going over to perennials as container plants. It’s a trend I fully endorse, the range of herbaceous plants out there to use is impressive, but here are my top five for foliage and flower colour that lasts for months.
•Geranium Roxanne, deep blue flowers from late May to the end of November.
•Astilbe Sprite, glossy, dark green foliage with shell pink spikes of flower all summer long.
•Ajuga Chocolate chip. A lovely spring flowering alpine with deep brown foliage and purple flowers from march to July.
•Hellebore Ice and Roses. Marbled dark foliage all year and deep rose coloured flowers carried from February through to May.
•Uncinia rubra. This mahogany red, evergreen grass is great in containers as it is a perfect foil for so many colour combinations, orange and purple, pink and lime green. All are complimented by this lovely grass.
We’ve moved into a house with a really overgrown garden. Can you advise us where to start reclaiming it without taking away the existing structure. We think the previous owner was a gardener
Congratulations on your purchase and your caution in not getting the chain saw out, as many new homeowners do. Most overgrown shrubs can be rejuvenated over a couple of years. The first year you need to identify them and find out if they flower on this year’s growth or last years stems. This will dictate how to treat them going forward. Then look at each individual shrub and look at the structure. If there are six main stems, cut back three to the size you want the plant to grow from. The following year do the same with the remaining three original stems. This way your plants will not be stressed by a complete hack back and will recover well to carry on making your garden look beautiful. This rejuvenation technique works well on most overgrown or leggy plants, such as neglected lavender or hebe plants that people hack back and kill trying to tidy them up. Think every other main stems and by leaving the other stems the plant can regrow well.
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