REAL readers' gardens!
The weather is causing confusion!
Agarden full of unusual plants and a big collection of fruit and veg in Alnwick, Northumberland.
In January, -5C was recorded in the unheated greenhouse. Thankfully there was no serious damage, but low temperatures do stress spring display plants (and the gardener!). Healthy wallflowers curl their leaves as they go into survival mode for the duration.
Our winter outdoor display relies heavily on hardy shrubs that bear flowers or have variegated or colourful leaves or bark. Two of these, pittosporum ‘Garnettii’ and a hebe, occasionally have their tips touched by frost but it’s a simple matter of pruning those out.
We’ve noted the occasional odd seasonal event, such as a hebe deciding to bloom again in the extreme January frost and an established but confused standard ceanothus ‘Concha’, whose flower clusters started to open in mid-December and currently remain suspended.
We’ve continued pruning greenhouse vines and outdoor woody perennials. The growth of two established hollies, one green leaved, the other silver variegated, has been brought back under control, and the Betula jacquemontii given its annual prune (its stems make excellent pea and bean supports). An old silver birch teems with wildlife but needs considerable reducing in height while still dormant. It’s so high we need a ladder, ropes and a chainsaw!
Broad beans, peas and onion sets are starting early growth; next will be sweetcorn, runner beans and courgettes. Planted in small pots, they’ll eventually transfer to the unheated greenhouse to harden off, then join the vegetable beds as sturdy young specimens.
Indoors are two popular spathiphyllum, scarlet poinsettia, schlumbergera, lemon fruits, Begonia rex and Ficus benjamina ‘Variegata’. Astandard olive is Judy’s favourite. Monstera deliciosa are solid residents. Forced bulbs, iris, hippeastrum and narcissus ‘Tête-à-tête’ are fleeting, but complete the gathering very well.
I’m taking time to think about the year ahead
Amodern take on a cottage-style garden, with deep herbaceous borders, trees, shrubs and a pond in Little Clacton, Essex.
Now we’re into 2024, I'm starting to think about and plan what I want to do in the coming year. I find the best way to do this is to look back at last year and see what did and didn’t work.
Gazania ‘Tiger Stripes’
