News - Page 141
December's plants of the month are the winterstems: those wonderful shrubs and trees which brighten our borders even after every last leaf has fallen and the frost is hard on the ground.
Stems are often an afterthought in choosing a plant, well behind flowers, foliage and fruit. But at this time of year they are revealed as the fine bone structure of the garden, and you begin to really appreciate their...
What to do in the garden in December:
Clear, frosty days make you glad to be alive, and the garden has a lovely, pared-down beauty at this time of year. Get outside and discover a winter paradise with our jobs to do this month.
General tasks:
Rejuvenate overgrown deciduous hedges cutting back about 30cm lowe...
Give your grasses some TLC as they go over into winter and you'll save yourself a job in the spring, as well as keeping your winter garden neat and tidy.
Not all grasses need attention in winter: some, in fact, come into their own at this time of year. Leave the tall, stately flowerheads of Calamagrostis x
Plant new hedges from this month, as the plants are dormant and will hardly know they've been moved. When they wake up in spring they'll race away to grow into a sturdy, elegant backdrop providing invaluable shelter for your garden.
In our garden centre you'll find a wide range of hedging plants available in all sizes. Smaller plants are an economical solution for long runs of hedging, while larger spec...
Plant tulips this month by the bucketful to bring one of the year's most breathtaking spectacles to your back yard. Tulip bulbs are planted later, to avoid the disfiguring disease tulip fire – but from this month onwards it's all systems go.
You'll find a superb range of varieties on sale in our garden centre, in all colours from yellow-edged mahogany red 'Abu Hassan' to pure white 'Purissima', pretty p...
The first frosts are just around the corner – so take a look around your garden and make sure your precious plants are well protected with our top winter survival tips.
- Hold off cutting back fuchsias and penstemons till next spring, leaving this year's dead stems and foliage in place. The extra protection will prevent the frost penetrating the ground and killing their roots
- Tie up kniphofia...
Sow garlic now for a generous crop of fat, fragrant bulbs next summer, as they need a good spell of frost to encourage them to split into cloves. There are three different types of garlic to choose from:
Hardneck garlic is the gourmet choice, with particularly good flavour. Try early-maturing 'Chesnok Red' or the spicy flavours of 'Red Sicilian'. Their flower...
Make leafmould from all those autumn leaves currently raining down on your lawn, as it's a waste of a truly precious garden resource to burn them or send them out with the green waste.
Leafmould acts as a wonderful soil conditioner, opening up heavy clay and holding on to moisture in light, sandy soils. Bulbs like snowdrops adore a leafmould mulch in spring as it imitates conditions on their native wood...
What to do in the garden in November:
It may seem chilly out there but the summer's warmth is still in the soil: it's a great time to buy and plant new additions to your garden. Here are some other jobs to be getting on with this month:
General tasks:
Clean out bird boxes
November's plant of the month is trees, often viewed with some trepidation among gardeners who don't have much room – but it's a myth that you need lots of space to have a tree. In fact there's a tree for every possible situation, with some even small enough to grow in containers.
Trees really shine out at this time of year, with leaves turning every shade from deepest purple through oranges, reds, and...