Garden News January 3

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January 3, 2015

CHRIS BEARDSHAW “Grape pruning made easy in 3 simple steps”

New Year,

fresh start!

Make gardening resolutions you'll keep, with Carol Klein's advice

20

simple ways to get a be er garden next year

Keep winter COLOURFUL!

The best acers for bright bark!

PLUS YOUR GUIDE TO 2015's

MUST-GROW VEG!

Force bulbs for colo early flowers indoo urful rs Plant shallots & so w leeks Start off fresh and sprouting seeds tasty

Inspiration

New Year,

fresh start!

Transform your garden by sticking to 20 simple resolutions…

“This year I’m going to...” all the plants I buy so 1 List I don’t forget what I’ve got

No ma er how good our intentions are, it’s so easy to forget the name of a plant, even if we are convinced we will remember. Rather than relying on plant labels, which tend to fade, break and go missing, go out in the January sales and get a ‘built to last’ notebook that you can write the name of each plant in.

Leave space to make notes about each plant and bit by bit you will be creating your own plant manual, based on your experiences of growing each plant. Leave room for how big it will grow, how fast it is growing and what conditions it enjoys. Over time it will become a priceless resource, all tailor-made to your garden. Excel spreadsheets make an excellent digital version if you’re computer savvy!

a 2 Keep sowing diary

In January, we all have the best intentions of what we’re going to sow through the year – but then things get busy and it’s hard to keep up! Make this the year to plan what to sow when. Stick your plan to the front of your fridge so you are reminded every day!

down my must-have 3 Write plants in a journal

Keep an ongoing wish list of the plants you spot in magazines, books and on garden visits so you don’t forget about them. When you have a gap in a border to fill or are creating something new, you can look through your journal and plan your additions to include

4

Get rid of plants that aren’t pulling their weight

It’s hard not to get sentimental about plants at times but ge ing rid of ones that aren’t performing can transform your garden. If you’ve got the odd tree or shrub that’s just ‘limping along’, dig it out and add something new. Add lots of compost or wellro ed leaf mould to the soil if a plant has been growing in the space for a long time.

Also think about why the plant didn’t do well and pick a new plant that will suit the site.

5 Move wrongly placed plants

In the same way that looking at a wonky picture on a wall can be annoying, the same can be said of plants that would look be er in a slightly different place! Winter is the perfect time to move shrubs, trees and roses.

Keep as much of the rootball intact as you can and these dormant plants will be fine.

It’s like giving the plant an operation under anaesthetic!

6 Garden News / January 3 2015

some from your wish list. If you cut pictures out of magazines and stick them in too, it will make it even easier to see what will go with what.

6

Before Tidy up that tatty corner

Every garden has a nook or cranny we’d prefer no-one to see because it ends up being a dumping ground! Just a few li le touches can transform it though!

We all need a space to store things but make this the year that you are ruthless with clu er! Get all your woody prunings shredded or binned straightaway, so a rubbish pile doesn’t accumulate. And if you’ve got a lot of things that have to be stored outside, place some planters filled with trailing ivies on top so they can grow down and act as camouflage! And for scruffy, shady areas where you’ve given up on growing anything, plant colourful ground cover plants such as liriope, Vinca minor, or Epimedium versicolor. These are no-fuss plants that will keep the area looking ‘gardened’ without the need for lots of upkeep.

Crocus

After

Shu erstock

some new varieties 7 Grow I’ve never tried before

Old habits die hard when it comes to sowing seeds and once you’ve found a reliable variety it almost feels like the seeds come with a guarantee. Keep growing old faithfuls but make this the year you grow new varieties too – even the old stagers were new kids on the block at one time! Have a look at our New Veg feature on page 24 for inspiration. And don’t miss next week’s round-up of 2014’s best new breeding, including dahlia ‘American Dawn’ (above).

8

Visit more gardens for inspiration

Ask any successful garden opener the key to their success and you can guarantee that at some point they have been influenced by someone else’s garden. Make this the year you visit as many gardens as you can so you can share ideas, planting tricks and growing advice. There are bound to be gardens open for charity in your area (visit the National Gardens Scheme www.ngs.org.uk and the British Red Cross, www.redcross.org.uk to find out more about their open gardens for 2015). Visiting local gardens lets you see how other gardeners have tackled the same scenarios you face – a problem shared is a problem halved!

plants that 9 Grow will suit my situation

It’s those plants in the garden centre that scream ‘buy me!’ that make this such a difficult resolution to stick to!

Some plants just won’t be happy in your garden if you can’t give them the conditions they need to thrive. Save yourself months of struggle and read the plant labels before you get seduced by a tempting plant in flower!

10

Check the size of plants on the label

When borders are bare and empty, it’s easy to ‘overplant’ and put things too close together. A couple of years later, you’ve got a real headache!

Space plants so they have at least their final spread between each other, even if the plants are small. Don’t worry if this leaves you with big gaps. Sow hardy annual flower seed direct in April to fill them with fast, easy colour.

Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn

Contin ues over the page January 3 2015 / Garden News 7

The future of Swansea’s iconic Plantasia hangs in the balance

ories this week The big gardeningEditst ge ed by IAN HODGSON Editor-at-lar

Alamy

Welsh venue faces closure

Endangered resident: Co on top tamarind monkey

Partners sought to run a raction

e: Large Popular venu koi carp to e m pool is ho

Alamy

32 Garden News / January 3 2015

schools and the public, it was also used as a venue for filming episodes of Dr Who in 2007 and 2009.

The council move comes in the wake of the need to make savings of £75 million through to 2018. The move to try and transfer Plantasia to new ownership or close it if this is the only remaining option, is estimated to save £400,000 over three years. In the latter scenario, Plantasia’s 12 staff will be redeployed elsewhere, said a council spokesman.

The public is being given chance to comment on proposals in the Sustainable Swansea initiative online and in local libraries. Final budget proposals will be discussed at a meeting in February 2015.

Shu erstock

P

LANTASIA, A HUGE pyramidal glasshouse in central Swansea faces closure unless other sources of funding can be found. The year-round visitor attraction at Parc Tawe, adjacent to a major shopping and leisure centre, recreates tropical rainforest and desert environments and is home to more than 5,000 tender plants and exotic animals.

A popular venue since opening in 1990, it attracts more than 90,000 visitors each year. Animals in the distinctive, multi-facted glasshouse include geckos, macaws, bearded dragons and critically endangered cotton-top tamarind monkeys and Kleinmann’s tortoise. Besides providing outreach courses for

Author and journalist who has been watching wildlife since the age of three

Julian Rollins

Julian resolves to add more wildlife value to his garden in 2015 WANT YOU to think big. Take a look at your garden and think of it as something huge. Now, unless you have a title or are an oligarch, you can probably see the whole of your ‘estate’, but you need to let your imagination run free – your back yard is part of something really significant.

What we gardeners choose to do has a big impact on the nation’s wildlife. And it’s a force for good because over the past decade or two, we’ve become a much more wildlife-friendly bunch, doing what we can to care for the nature we share space with.

And together, the UK’s 15 million gardens cover an area of 2,700 square kilometres, or about 1,042 square miles. That’s the same area as the Lake District and New Forest National Parks.

What really counts is numbers.

A garden that’s cared for like a nature reserve is great, but can only make a modest contribution if it’s surrounded by others that amount to a wildlife-free desert.

If all gardens in a neighbourhood have some wildlife-friendly features, these all add up. So, if you believe in New Year resolutions, make one of yours to add a bit more wildlife value to your garden in 2015.

Here are six improvements worth putting on your ‘to do’ list:

5

I

Box clever See that your garden offers some nesting options. Build a nestbox yourself or buy one or more (in different sizes) to attract a range of species. For expert advice go to ‘About Birds’ at the British Trust for Ornithology’s website (www.bto.org).

1

Add water It doesn’t have to be big – any size of pond makes a huge contribution to a garden’s pulling power as far as animals and birds are concerned. Birds will come to drink, frogs and newts will use it to breed in and insects such as damselflies and dragonflies will come to call.

6

Grow green Going organic will help your garden be a mini ecosystem.

If you can’t cut out chemicals, reduce their usage. Organic plots have more invertebrates, meaning more food for species that rely on them – whether that’s a some hungry sparrows, your local hedgehog, or bats.

Try using barriers such as fleece rather than chemicals.

3

2

4

Make a meadow Let some grass grow longer than the lawn, making it more useful to wildlife. Start from scratch using a seed mix or add perennial plug plants to an established lawn.

Photos: Shutterstock

Happy pollinators Bees, butterflies and other flying insects haven’t done that well out of some recent garden fashions, such as fads for decking or front garden parking spaces, but by growing lots of pollinatorfriendly flowers you can help that change.

Offer shelter Many gardens lack somewhere for wildlife – especially nocturnal residents like hedgehogs – to keep out of sight.

Put that right by leaving a quiet corners to run a bit wild. Also, put together a pile of logs or stones where small animals can hide in gaps and holes.

Stagger meal times for the birds in your garden Mid-winter days are busy ones for wild birds. There are only a few hours for birds to

Blue tits come to feeders early

search for food while there’s light. If you take the time to watch you will soon get a sense of their daily timetable.

In most gardens, blackbirds and robins make up the early shift, coming to bird tables first thing. A little later blue tits, and close relatives such as the coal tit and the great tit, will put in an appearance, with sparrows, starlings and finches appearing last.

There’s even a pecking

order of sorts in operation within species. Female blue tits and coal tits arrive at feeders first, followed by males of the same species.

The other busiest period comes in the late afternoon when birds fill their stomachs for the night to come. The third daily peak is more modest and happens around mid-day. It’s about lowerstatus individuals and smaller species getting their share.

You can use the daily routine. For example, by putting food out as close as possible to sunrise you can see that your garden robin gets a meal.

Or, by putting food at ground level around mid-day you can feed shy birds such as dunnocks and wrens. During this less intense time of day, they are less likely to be chased off by more aggressive individuals.

January 3 2015 / Garden News 45