Now is the time to start planning changes in your garden. Indulge in new ideas and add your personal style to your garden.
Near the end of the month you could start the winter pruning of your shrubs.
If you are thinking of adding roses to your garden, now is the time to buy and plant them, allowing their roots to establish before the spring.
All the garden centres will have them on sale now.
Summer flowering bulbs are also available at the garden centres, however, I would put off planting them until March, when the soil is a bit warmer.
Keep feeding the birds in the cold weather, and make sure you keep a bit of the pond surface free from ice to let the gases escape, as they are harmful to the fish. The birds will also appreciate somewhere to drink from. You can hold a pan of boiling water on the surface to gently melt away the ice.
Plant of the month – Hamamelis mollis (Witch Hazel)
Witch Hazel, hamamelis mollis
Hamamelis mollis is commonly known as Chinese witch hazel. It is a hardy, easy to grow, deciduous bushy shrub. It has broad, oval leaves in spring and summer, and fragrant yellow to red flowers, which grow on leafless branches, in late winter, and early spring.
It can be grown in most locations, cottage gardens, informal gardens, flower borders, and is low maintenance, and will survive in full sun or partial shade.
It prefers well drained soil, acid or neutral, sand, clay or loam, and will grow to a height and spread of 2.5 – 4 metres. This lovely shrub can be found in all good garden centres this month, and will brighten up any winter border.
I’ve already pruned the shrubs in my South-facing front garden. They’ve been there for many years, they are very hardy and I know that its better to prune them early, certainly whilst its mild and wet, rather than later when the ground has dried out.
The timing of pruning in my garden is thus down to experience and judging the conditions, rather than following a pruning guide/calendar in a textbook too rigorously.
Excellent point! We do need ‘experience and judging the conditions’, and with the weather like this, I think many people are keeping themselves warm indoors. I actually would need some help with my garden. A few of my neighbours recently have turned their front garden into a driveway, so they don’t have to worry about all these gardening problems.
I’ve already pruned the shrubs in my South-facing front garden. They’ve been there for many years, they are very hardy and I know that its better to prune them early, certainly whilst its mild and wet, rather than later when the ground has dried out.
The timing of pruning in my garden is thus down to experience and judging the conditions, rather than following a pruning guide/calendar in a textbook too rigorously.
Hi Ray,
Excellent point! We do need ‘experience and judging the conditions’, and with the weather like this, I think many people are keeping themselves warm indoors. I actually would need some help with my garden. A few of my neighbours recently have turned their front garden into a driveway, so they don’t have to worry about all these gardening problems.