Wealden Times | WT258 | November 2023 | Christmas Gift Supplement inside

Trouble
Ahead
Jo Arnell comes up with some practical solutions to help protect
your plants during challenging periods of weather
It’s been a tough year. Where the
plants are concerned, it’s been a
monumentally difficult one. The
weather has been, putting it kindly,
challenging. This time last year it was
raining, and it didn’t stop raining until
the beginning of December – when
it froze. Many of our tender shrubs
– things like hebes and pittosporums
– died. The weather didn’t really start
warming up until late spring and then
suddenly it went very hot and dry.
Long periods of extreme weather –
which is more the norm now – make
growing conditions difficult for all
the plants. Some will cope better than
others – the weeds for example, have
barely noticed and are still romping
away – but many of our cultivated,
carefully nurtured plants are suffering.
We need to find ways to help the
garden in tricky times, ways to keep our
plants alive, or, if we do end up losing
them, an understanding of why they
have died. The reason that our native
and wild plants seem on the whole
to manage much better than most is
because they are ideally suited to their
environment and able to withstand
some of the effects of climate change
– in the short term. Those from other
places and the cultivated versions of
them, where the soil and atmospheric
conditions are very different, are only
just at home here, so prolonged changes
in the weather can be the final straw.
Soil matters
Your soil is going to go a long way
to keep your plants healthy – or not,
depending on several factors. It’s
worth doing a soil test to find out
the pH. Most soils are neutral, but
if you have acidic soil you’ll be able
to grow plants like camellias and
azaleas. If it is alkaline, then lilac,
lavender and vegetables like cabbage
and Brussels sprouts will do well.
The structure of the soil is important
too. If yours is heavy clay, it may
be waterlogged in winter and hard
as concrete in summer. Sandy soils
on the other hand are free draining
– which means that they are very
dry in summer and tend to be low
in nutrients. Improve heavy clay by
adding organic matter – manure or
compost. Improve sandy soil by adding
the same thing – organic matter will
break up a clay soil and make it more
free draining, and will help a sandy soil
to hold onto moisture and nutrients.
Good drainage is important,
especially through long periods of
wet, cold weather. Many plants more
suited to Mediterranean conditions
suffer in a wet winter because the
area around their roots is saturated.
This is often worse than the cold.
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