Wealden Times | WT179 | January 2017 | Health & Beauty supplement inside

Garden
2. Add more structure
to your borders
This is a great time of the year for
focusing critically on the borders,
without the distraction of the flowers
and foliage. If it’s all looking dismal
and bare, think about adding some
plants for winter interest. These can
be evergreen, or have interesting bark,
an elegant form, or an anchoring
feature of some kind. Try to make sure
that plants that come into their own
during the winter either fade into the
background once they’ve done their
thing, become a foil for other plants,
or, best of all, will bring another point
of seasonal interest later in the year.
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Good structural
plants:
Box – this is excellent for
adding formality and evergreen
interest. Create low hedges,
topiary shapes and focal points.
Euphorbia ‘Wulfenii’ – is
an architectural plant with
handsome, grey/green foliage
in winter and long-lasting
lime green bracts in spring.
Miscanthus sinensis – a tall
grass with attractive seedheads
that will persist all through
the winter. Grasses are a good
alternative to ‘blobby’ shrubs and
bring movement to a border.
Osmanthus – a small leaved
evergreen with tiny scented
flowers in spring. It can be
trimmed to a neat shape to make
a dark backdrop for other plants.
Cornus alba ‘Elegantissima’
– this dogwood has pretty,
variegated foliage, good
autumn colour and dark red
stems on the young growth.
3. Learn how to prune
If you’re adding structure, you will
find that no matter how well behaved
the plant is, unless it dies or is made
of plastic, it will need pruning at some
point. Knowing when to prune each
plant and by how much is a subject
that fills many books (containing
impenetrable diagrams that bear no
resemblance to your plants). So, in a
couple of sentences: prune evergreens
during the spring and summer when
all danger of frost is past. Prune earlyflowering
deciduous shrubs after they’ve
flowered and late-flowering shrubs
(Buddleia etc), in the early spring. For
the health of the plant, cut out dead,
damaged and diseased wood first and
then aim for a pleasing goblet shape.
Branches shouldn’t cross or grow
inwards, as a more open structure allows
air to circulate. Stand back often and
look at the overall shape, as if you’re
a hairdresser, but try not to ‘hedge’
about trimming little pieces off, as this
can make the situation worse. Got all
that? Fortunately GBH to plants does
not carry a prison sentence – yet.
4. Catch problems early
If you make a habit of going into
the garden on a daily basis you stand
a better chance of catching the first
greenfly as it alights and the first slug
that dares to slide into view. If possible,
incorporate it into your daily routine
and take a companion – or, better, a
cup of tea or a glass of something as you
walk round. You’ll soon start spotting
a few weeds and the odd pesky. Pull
them up or pick them off as you go and
you might just stay on top of them…
5. Grow more edibles
Some crops might not work, your
vegetables might not look as perfect as
they do in the shops, but they will taste
better and you’ll have the satisfaction of
having grown them yourself. That first
year will be a great adventure – and it
will take about that long for all the pests
to find you – after that, growing your
own can become more of a battle. If you
have been growing vegetables for a while
and have been beset by pests/diseases/
soil problems, work out which crops
have suffered and then just grow a few
of the easy-going ones that won’t need
too much TLC: salads, beans, tomatoes
and courgettes should provide bumper
harvests of summer crops. Add in a few
leeks and spinach or kale and the winter
will be covered without much fuss, too.
Apparently we should only make one
resolution each year and then break it
down into an achievable action plan. So
I’d say going into the garden more often
would be the one to choose. You might
start off just catching a few of the problems
early, but, strangely, the more you go out
in it, the more you find yourself doing a
few little jobs, and before you know it,
there’s a list of plans and high hopes for
their completion. Let’s get out there.
For information on next year’s
gardening courses contact
Jo on 01233 861149
hornbrookmanor.co.uk
wealdentimes.co.uk
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