The Link Early Spring 2020

will focus the eye down the centre of a garden,
where you could create another area of the
garden for an interested person to walk to.
Placing a simple structure or a feature at the
end of the avenue, almost as a full stop in a
garden, will also attract the eye down the
avenue towards it.
A structure such as a gazebo that you sit
underneath or something that comes off the
house, this is great for shade, but you also
want to take into consideration what you
might be growing on it. For arguments sake, it
is very nice to sit under roses, etc., but when
they drop their blossom this can cover
everything. Wisteria would be far better, since
it drops less. A grapevine again would drop
less petals and flowers.
When pruning climbers on a rose arch or
wooden structure, make sure you prune back
to the main structure of the plant. For example,
Honeysuckle grows from a top joint and then
falls over the old growth cutting off the light
and killing it off. It then becomes much
thicker, which is obviously great for wildlife,
but it can make a rose arch etc. look lopsided
and this additional weight can cause damage
or pull them down in winds.
Things to do in the garden this month
Remember to keep turning your compost and
then re-sheet. February/March will be the
time to start to use it on your beds.
The bulbs you planted in November have
started to come up. I recommend taking
photos of the area to record and remind you
where the bulbs are. You may wish to put a
new plant in that area, or add more bulbs the
following year.
If you have any fencing or wooden structure
that need attention, now is the time to act as
most plants are dormant and you can get
behind them to repair or paint. It is also much
easier to see what needs to be done when all
herbaceous plants are cut down to ground
level. Any replacement work can be done at
the same time.
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