Garden Planning: Winter and Early Spring

I live close to the English Channel; it takes about 5 minutes to walk to the beach from the house. This means that my gardening conditions are usually mild, if often wind swept.

I wrote this about the winter of 2009:

"This winter has been unusual. The weather was cold in January, with several days when the temperature was below freezing. Last year my geraniums survived being left outdoors, even blooming throughout the grey days of winter.

This year, my geraniums have all succombed to frost!

The weather seemed to warm up at the end of January. Then, at the end of the month, the BBC weather service predicted snow. Not just any old snow - this was snow from Russia!

Late on the afternoon of 1st February, big snow flakes started to fall from the sky. By the next morning, we had about 2 inches of snow on the ground. This really didn't seem much, so Wonderful Husband walked to the railway station to get a train to work.

About 10 minutes later, he arrived back home because all trains had been cancelled. Thinking that was a ridiculously cautious approach, he then left in his car.

About 30 minutes later, he arrived home again because the snow was much worse further inland.

This batch of snow did not appear to have an adverse effect on my garden, and it melted the next day."

The moral of this tale is that I could have been better prepared.  I should have dug up my geraniums in the autumn, or (better still) taken cuttings.

If you choose to dig up your geraniums, trim their roots and plant them in pots without too much space.  Give the leaves a good pruning.   Be sure to remove any snails, worms or pests before bringing them indoors.

Keep the geraniums somewhere cool but frost free.  Remove dead leaves regularly.   Water them very sparingly.

If you take cuttings, get them off to a good start by dipping the base of each cutting in rooting powder.  Plant the cuttings in a sandy compost, with several cuttings in the same pot.  Keep them somewhere cool, but frost free and water sparingly.

In general, take a good look around your garden in autumn and decide whether any of your perennials could be adversely affected by frost of snow.  I usually simply cover dahlias with leaf mold or mulch, but if you live somewhere with very cold winters you may need to lift the plants and store the tubers over the winter.

My account of winter 2009:

"The snow did have the effect of making the Cornus look beautiful. These shrubs will have lime green leaves in the summer, providing some interesting colour in that season.

To produce bright red stems, it is necessary to prune these fairly severely. This can be a bit daunting, but I know from experience that they do grow quickly. If left unpruned, they loose the bright red colour.

Actually, most of the work that has taken place in my garden in February has been pruning. I like to get the shrubs cut back while the weather is cold."

As well as the red-stemmed Cornus, I have another variety with yellow stems.  Both of these make a bold splash of colour when it snows.

Small willow trees can also provide welcome colour in the winter if they are kept well-trimmed.

Evergreen shrubs play a valuable role in providing winter colour; be sure to choose varieties that will not spread too much and overwhelm smaller plants.

This photo was taken on the 20th February, 2009 only two and a half weeks after the snow melted.

These flowers were in the area around the ornamental pond. Crocus were blooming in most of the beds, and under the apple tree.

The area at the bottom of the garden had a beautiful display of snow drops.

I had hoped that the cold weather would kill off a lot of garden pests, such as slugs and snails. However, I was putting washing out to dry and spotted what looked like a stone in the grass. When I picked it up, it was a slug (Yuck!). For those of you from other parts of the world, a slug is like a snail with no shell. It eats huge holes in the leaves of my favourite plants, leaving a trail of slime as it moves about.

As well as spring flowers, weeds - especially dandilions- are starting to appear. This means that I will have to do a lot of work in March to ensure the garden looks nice when the warm weather arrives.

My account of the early spring 2009 shows the benefit of planting bulbs for early spring colour.  Snow drops are usually the first to appear, closely followed by the yellow and blue of crocus.

I've included this close-up of Pulmonaria (common name Lungwort) because it is such a useful garden plant.

It is one of the first to bloom, with blue flowers that fade to pink. This gives a pretty contrast to yellow crocus, and early daffodils.

Pulmonaria is attractive to bees, which is good if you want to grow fruit or vegetables.

The foliage is dark green, with cream-coloured freckles.  This looks attractive in summer as a backdrop to brighter flowers.

The only draw back is that is spreads quickly, and needs to be restrained to avoid it taking over a flower bed.

 I don't grow many daffodils, because the bulbs take so long to die back.  I do have a few, and they are all in bud, so I think there will be a good display this year.

I should have planted more tulip bulbs.  Many of the older bulbs appear to have come up without buds, so April may look a bit colourless in my garden.

Always something to look forward to - and always more work.  The joys of gardening....

 I have managed to carry on with this diary.  If you have enjoyed my February photos, or found the text interesting, you might like to read the next few chapters:

Garden Diary March

Garden Diary April