The garden shed and greenhouse will love to have a good clean out. Wash out pots ready for spring planting and clean, sharpen and oil the garden tools. When everything is up together and ready it makes the start of the busy spring gardening a joy. Now is the perfect time, as long as the ground is not frozen, to plant bare rooted hedging, roses, shrubs, fruit trees and deciduous trees whilst they are dormant. It’s wonderful to watch plants maturing in your garden and seeing your ideas coming together.
Please don’t forget the birds through the winter months especially and whilst in the garden little jobs that can be done in a few minutes but make all the difference are removing weeds as they pop up and deadhead winter pansies to save them going to seed and stop flowering. Keep an eye on any climbers in the garden especially if it’s going to be very windy and tie back anything that may get damaged.
If the weather is bad then it’s a perfect time to plan what you want to do in the garden in the coming months, which vegetables to grow, where to put a small pond and order seeds and plants from your armchair.
Indoor gardening.... keep an eye on your houseplants which may show signs of stress if your house is very much hotter and airless they may need moving to a new location or may not need so much water. A kitchen windowsill can be utilized by growing fresh herbs and starting off some early seeds eg. Sweet peas.
The days will be getting longer and the bulbs popping up through the ground will lighten the grey days and give us a feeling of joy that nature is so miraculous. Many bulbs have been planted by a team of volunteers in the autumn of 2021 and it will be so exciting to see them enhance our very special place - Frenchay.
A Very Happy New Year to all and enjoy whatever space you may have large or small.
The Tidy Gardener