Timing it Right in the Garden

As the winter fades away and the spring sun begins to warm our days, it’s time to start thinking about getting the garden ready for the new season. There is something so satisfying about a well-maintained garden. Not only does it make our outdoor space look beautiful, but it also provides a place of solace and relaxation.

Knowing when to start on the garden is always a bit of an art. Start too early and the plants aren’t ready for it. Any subsequent hard frosts can damage them and the soil may be too cold as well. Not only that but you can’t always tell what it where and may end up damaging plants that you didn’t realise were there.

I also like to leave all of the dead vegetation in place as long as possible. Last years old woody stems, seed heads, dead leaves and such like might look a little messy but they provide a much-needed home for all sorts of bugs and beasties from insect larvae to hedgehogs. The longer we can leave them undisturbed the better. The seed heads are a useful source of food for the birds too.

Starting Early

There does come a time though when things need to be tidied up somewhat so that we can enjoy the garden too. When exactly to start is usually dictated by the weather. I’m often tempted to get out there a little too early and I must admit that I did do a little tidying whilst planting out our new hawthorn trees earlier in the year. As well as tidying up where they were planted I did also prune all of the trees and shrubs that were overgrown. This pruning helps to stimulate new growth keeping the plants healthy and also keeps them under control, especially in a smaller garden where you can’t let things run amock. Getting out there early does give you a bit of a headstart too.

There have been one or two warmer sunnier days that have been tempted to make a proper start, but I’d managed to resist. A good job really as we have had another cold snap recently. There were lots of jobs I wanted to get on top of though as the cold winter had been particularly tough on the phormiums in the garden. They had all pretty much been killed by the sharp frosts. I’d noticed that this was the case all over the area, not just in our garden. The dead, rotting sword-like leaves were beginning to look quite unsightly.

New Plants

Anna and I had a trip to Welshpool last weekend where we visited our favourite garden centre, The Derwen Garden Centre. I’d bought a few new plants and we had a lovely Sunday dinner there. So, with plants to go in the garden and a warm Saturday afternoon with not much happening I couldn’t wait any longer.

The robot mowers had been out for a couple of weeks already keeping the lawns trim for us so I was able to get straight down to business.

Clearing Up

I started clearing up all the debris from the winter. Dead leaves, cutting back all the old stems and then started to tackle the huge Phormium. I don’t know how well they cope with being hacked back but as much of it was dead there wasn’t really any choice. It was getting a little too large anyway, so if what’s left of it survives it might not have been a bad thing.

With space around it cleared I was then able to start clearing up some of the borders. Finally, I had areas cleared and could start the fun of planting out some new additions. Whilst at Derwen Garden Centre last weekend, there were Hellebores of all kinds. They were all being well and truly made use of by honey bees. We already had 3 Hellebores in the garden that had survived for a while now. You can just make one out in front of the Phormium in the photo above. Things rarely ‘thrive’ here, so surviving is classed as good! I thought a couple more for some additional winter colour and very early spring forage for the bees wouldn’t go amiss. They were planted out today, along with a nice fritillary and a Wisteia that I’d been growing in a pot for a couple of years. Let’s hope they all like it here.

The hawthorns that we planted a earlier in the year are all coming into leaf now. It’ll be a while before they form a nice, impenetrable hedge, but they seem to settling in. Elsewhere, the daffodils, primroses and hyacinths are providing some colour and blossom is beginning to come into bud on some of the trees. Now that things have been tidied up a little we can actually see them.

There is of course much, much more to do but it’s certainly satisfying to have made a start. It should pay off later in the year when I’ll be able to sit out there in the sunshine and enjoy the fruits of my labours.

Tags: Garden