To be honest, once we’re deep into November, there is less temptation to get down and dirty in the garden.
But if you wrap up warm and step out there, I can assure you that you will find satisfying jobs to give you a cosy glow, such as feeding wildbirds, tidying the hellebores or even creating an espalier…
Heavenly hellebores
How beautiful are oriental hellebore flowers in spring! My favourites have just got to be the pale freckly single kinds, but almost all of them make me go weak at the knees. But they cheerfully throw out their gorgeous fragile blooms amid a mass of old tatty leaves – think Sugar Plum Fairies in a swamp – which can ruin the moment.
Now’s the time to cut all the old foliage right down to the ground; just take care not to damage any new buds while you’re doing it. By doing this job you’ll also prevent the old leaves from carrying Hellebore Leaf Spot Disease right through the winter ready to infect the next set of leaves and flowers. One word of warning: if any of your plants have got stunted or distorted growth and black streaks, I’m afraid this is the dramatically-named virus Hellebore Black Death, and you must dig up the plant and destroy it.
Like hostas and peonies, hellebores aren’t too keen on all that business of being divided and replanted that you have to do with other herbaceous things, so a bit of mulch and feed (they are quite greedy plants) is all they require.
Making an espalier
Have you ever tried shaping a fruit tree in any way? If you haven’t, I URGE you to have a go – it’s good fun, very satisfying and can look fantastic. We have a short path linking the terrace to another part of the garden and decided to edge it with espaliers of crab apples. There are hundreds of real experts on this art, and we can’t claim any great knowledge, but these espaliers have been such a joy in every season and are constantly commented on by visitors.
If you fancy trying this project, just a couple of technicalities first: with apples, you are better off with a variety that is spur-bearing (carries its fruit on little spurs of wood) rather than tip-bearing – there are lots to choose from so check the label or look the variety name up online to find its attributes. We chose the crab apple Malus ‘Red Sentinel’ for ours and it has performed brilliantly (though this could of course be beginner’s luck….) Your apple trees will be grafted onto a rootstock and the two most suitable ones for an espalier of 3-4 tiers are M26 and M106. There is heaps more gumph about all this on the internet if you’re interested, but here’s what we did:
We bought 8 wooden posts 2m tall, 6 metal bars 180 cm long, a roll of strong galvanised wire and a bag of straining eye-bolts.
We anchored the posts in the ground 160 cm apart in two rows each side of the path and ran the wires between them in three tiers at 40cm intervals, tightening them using the eye bolts. Then we fixed the metal bars between the posts along the top.
We bought bare-root one-year-old trees (‘maidens’) and planted them at equal intervals between the posts, supported by a bamboo cane.
The main stem of each one was pruned down to just above the bottom wire; the uppermost bud left becomes the main stem and the next two became the lowest branches to be grown along the wires sideways. We were careful not to wrench these shoots horizontally too quickly – it was more a question of ‘firm encouragement’ 🤣.
When the ‘new’ main stem reached to just above the second wire, we cut it off, and did exactly the same again, training to top shoot upwards and the next two gently sideways.
Then it was just a matter of keeping on going till each tree reached the topmost wire, trained two shoots along it and bingo! A fully-fledged espalier! During the summer, I regularly trim down any shoots that are heading skywards leaving short stubby growths from which the blossom and fruit will come the following year (‘spurs’).
Yeah, I know it all sounds complicated, but it honestly wasn’t that hard, and I think you’ll be excited by the results if you give this project a go.
Gardening shorts
- Have you been tidying up some tall roses and other shrubs so that they won’t be rocked around by harsh winter weather? Good idea, but why not use some of the prunings to make free new plants from hardwood cuttings? It is simplicity itself to use straight stems from this season’s growth about 20 cm long, roughly pencil thickness, cutting a slanted edge at the top of the stem and straight across the bottom (so you don’t plant them upside down 🙃).
Strip off any foliage and put the cuttings round the edge of a pot of compost or in a slit trench in the ground, with at least half their length buried in the soil. They won’t root for at least 6 months and mustn’t be disturbed for at least a year, but that’s not going to bother you, is it? You’ve used plant material that you would have chucked away to make free bushes that would have cost you a fortune!
- Is there any perennial more typical of cottage
garden romance than a hollyhock? The usual advice for growing them from seed is to sow them in April or May where you want them to grow, and then thin them.
But as an experiment in mid-October I collected some ripe seed from the few hollyhocks that I have and sowed them shallowly in a pot of gritty compost left outside. And they’ve come up like mustard and cress! These plants hate root disturbance, so I’ll have to transfer them VERY gingerly into their own pots where they can develop their long tap roots ready for planting out next spring.
- Don’t forget to feed wild birds with high-energy foods which have lots of fats and proteins in them, such as suet cakes, fat balls, unsalted peanuts and sunflower seeds. There are some wonderful bird feeders on the market that are much easier to keep clean than normal ones and we particularly like the Finches Friend ones – do look at the link below. Keep the bird bath clean and topped up with fresh water. Also make sure you clean out the bird boxes getting rid of material that can harbour mites and parasites. Disinfect it with boiling water but avoid using chemical disnfectants unless you know they are bird-friendly. We have a gorgeous bird box in our online shop which would make a wonderful present for someone – or yourself!
- Keep checking any stored crops like onions, potatoes or apples for signs of rot and remove any offenders straightaway – you know what they say about “One bad apple……”
This lovely fern is springing into life just as everything else is packing up its tent. It thoroughly deserves to be one of Louise’s Great Plants this Month and here’s why…
Click on the video below to watch Laura explain why Finches Friend bird feeders lead the way in cleaner bird feeders and healthier bird populations.
For more information on why this bird feeder is worth the price read her blog post on it here
A plant makes a great Christmas gift for lots of reasons – sustainability, longevity, sentimentality.
We’ve chosen eight that we think would make really good gifts…click here
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