What’s looking good in the garden?

Now that all the leaves have dropped I can see the bare bones of the garden including all the textured bark on trees. Some trees I just want to run my hands over, particularly the shiny red-brown bark of Prunus serrula, with its curls and ribbons as the barks starts to shed (it is always tempting to peel it and help it on its way) and the rougher more textured bark of Acer griseum. The colourful stems of cornus are lighting up the garden on a grey day, particularly the acid green of Cornus sericea ‘Flaviramea’ and the vibrant fiery stems of Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’.

December Advice

There are always a few tasks to help with the aftercare of any garden, here are my top tips for December:
Order Seed catalogues: When it’s cold or wet and dark there is nothing better than perusing the seed catalogues and dreaming of what could be next summer. A wonderful chance to let your imagination run wild from the warmth of the sofa. Once I’ve browsed through the catalogues for the first time and got carried away with all the seeds I’m sowing, I like to get a notebook and pen and write down what I’m thinking about buying. Seeing it in black and white allows me to stop and think how it is all going to fit in with the existing planting scheme. It is also a chance to refine the selection, as I know I won’t have time to sow and tend to everything I picked out.

Prune fruit trees: Apart from wall trained fruit trees this is the time of year to give them a prune if they need it. Cut out any dead or diseased branches and give them a light pruning to help them keep their shape. I also like to prune where branches are crossing or growing too close to each other, to allow the air to circulate as the apples grow next year to reduce the chance of diseases affecting the crop. I’ll also be pruning my apple tree to stop it from trying to escape into the neighbour’s garden, I’m happy for them to enjoy the fruit but I’m sure they don’t want the branches filling up their valuable space. It is also worth checking on whether you have tip or spur bearing fruit trees as they need pruning slightly differently. Pruning tip growing fruit trees too vigorously will reduce the crop.

Bare root planting: The season is now well underway, running from around November until March, depending on the weather (the temperature needs to be cold enough to allow the plants to become dormant and then once it starts warming up again in spring the season stops). If you haven’t already ordered any new fruit trees, hedging, roses or anything else you’re thinking of adding to the garden many nurseries will still have stock left to order. There is still plenty of time to plant them too. Once planted I like to add a layer of mulch, to help keep some warmth in the soil in winter and retain the moisture in summer, as well as helping to keep the weeds down.

Bare root season: This year I seem to have been planting lots of roses, for clients. I love making a hedge out of them, an alternative from the usual laurel or privet, particularly where it doesn’t need to be a high hedge. Kew Gardens is a favourite rose to use for hedges, it is less prickly than most and unless the winter is really cold it will keep hold of its leaves. It is almost evergreen, making it more interesting to look at after it has finished flowering, rather than a bunch of twigs.

What I’m working on at the moment

Bulb Planting: Now that all the bulbs order have turned up I’ve been busy planting lots of them in client’s gardens. I’m hoping the fact that I’m planting them later than usual will improve their chances of blooming next spring. With all the rain we had in October and part of November I wondering how much this will affect the bulbs.

Attending trade shows: I’ve been down to London to visit a show called Futurescape. It is a chance to talk to suppliers and have a look at the new products that are coming out. Seeing what is new always gets the creative juices flowing, thinking about how I could use new paving products or furniture in new gardens. There are also an amazing variety of talks to choose from, whether looking for inspiration, moving your business forward or learning from some of the best in the industry.

Looking at a new garden: I’ve been taking time to explore a new site that used to look at a very grand manor house and church buildings surrounded by a moat before it was burnt to the ground by Henry VIII. The outline can still be seen from the air and the client is keen that this is thought about when designing the space. As well as how the garden links to the house, I like to think about how it links to the surrounding landscape as well. Garden designers often talk about Genius loci, the spirit of the place, being able to sense that connection as you wander into the space is all important.

Garden Trends

Edimentals: The idea of growing plants that not only look pretty but are edible is becoming increasingly popular. It means that there doesn’t need to be a separate kitchen and ornamental garden but that they can all be mixed in the same area or border of the garden. Edimentals tend to be fairly easy to grow and maintain, these are plants such as fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). I really like mixing the frothy fronds of bronze (Foeniculum vulgare ‘Giant Bronze’) or the purple Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’) fennel in with Verbena bonariensis, maybe some grasses and a few astrantias. Snipping off a few fronds to add to a salad adds a hint of aniseed but I tend to leave the bulbs alone to enjoy seeing the yellow flowers break open, I treat it as a perennial. That’s not to say that I don’t like a crisp fennel salad or mixing it into a pasta sauce. Asparagus are in a similar vein with their airy stems and once established will come back year after year. Currants have pretty flowers around spring before dripping with strands of jewel like redcurrants or bundles of blackcurrants. Shrubs and perennials usually come to mind when thinking about adding edimentals to the garden but you can always sprinkle a few annuals in to mix up the colours or brighten up a space. Plants such as nasturtiums will brighten up any garden when spilling out of the border or over a wall and look equally pretty in a salad. Perhaps the deep purple of Tropaeolum majus ‘Black Velvet’ or the bright red of Empress of India. Chard too has a similar impact on a border, the multi-coloured stems of Chard ‘Bright Lights’ with its yellow, magenta and red stems or the brillant red-pink of rhubarb chard.

Adaptability with the climate: With the hot summer we had last year and now all the never ending rain and storms, followed by snow in some areas it is an increasingly important topic when planning and planting a garden. There were a few causalities last winter with the cycle of freezing weather followed by rain and then freezing again. Spring was late this year, in terms of plants flowering and new plants being ready to come off the nurseries and be planted out in gardens. In many areas spring and summer plants overlapped in flowering time, going from plants barely peeking through the soil to an explosion of colour. We are going to need to look at plants that are more adaptable or have a wider range of tolerance to use in gardens. Rather than for example planting up a Mediterranean garden we will need plants that will cope with warmer or wetter summers but also have a tolerance at lower temperatures in winter.

Enhancing your garden

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About the author

Camilla Grayley is an experienced garden designer, speaker and writer based in York. She designs gardens and delivers planting design services for clients in Yorkshire and across the UK.

Get in touch on 01904 670330 or info@camillagrayleydesign.com