Sage Advice

The hibernating gardener

Callum Halstead

If your life is anything like mine, then you may feel that you barely see your own garden during the winter. If I was more organised, I could possibly sneak half an hour in the garden between sunrise and when I have to leave for work, but let’s be realistic— I’ve never been a morning person, and the odds of this occurring are incredibly slim. By the time I return home it’s already dark. At the weekend, when I may just about have time for a glance out of the back door, a glance is all I usually manage between the weekly food shop, the date with the in-laws, the trip to IKEA or, on occasion, a visit to another garden. On the rare occurrence that the stars align and a weekend remains plan-free, it is almost guaranteed to be raining so I find it’s best not to get my hopes up. For these reasons, I tend to write winter off as far as my garden is concerned— but this has prompted me to wonder how I could alter what I’m growing in order to get more out of it at this time of year, an exercise that other gardeners may also find useful.

From December to February, garden writers everywhere publish article after article about creating winter gardens. I very nearly did this myself, before having second thoughts and completely re-writing this column. Many extol the virtues of planting brightly coloured Dogwoods (Cornus sp.) with their vibrant green, red, yellow or purple stems, amid mounds of heavily perfumed Sweet Box (Sarcococca spp.), punctuating the borders with Hellebores (Helleborus spp.) of every variety and under-planting all with Cyclamen (Cyclamen sp.), Winter Aconites (Eranthis sp.) and Snowdrops (Galanthus sp.). All of this should, of course, be topped off with a fine multi-stemmed Himalayan Birch (Betula utilis var. jacquemontii), the be-all and end-all of ‘winter-garden’ trees. I’m being overly simplistic here, and I should add that none of this is bad advice, despite how frequently it is repeated. These are all very beautiful and reliable plants that form the backbone of many winter gardens up and down the British Isles, including the one that I work in. If you do find that you have time to spend in your garden at this time of year, then these plants will certainly help to boost the winter interest.

For me, however, it just doesn’t make sense to pour a considerable amount of time and energy into creating a display that I will barely get the opportunity to enjoy. So, what do I want from my garden at this time of year? I’m certainly a big fan of seed-heads. Growing anything with good structure, that dies standing up and retains its shape even in death, can provide the garden with some striking winter architecture. Unless your garden has really taken a battering in the December storms, finding beauty in the faded remains of summer and autumn displays is by no means a challenge. If you’re on Instagram, searching for the rather humorous #lovelydeadcrap will give you an idea of the aesthetic: beauty in decay. You may have already had enough of this aesthetic come the end of autumn, but I encourage you to wait until we’ve had some really good frosts before taking the shears to it all. This approach to creating winter interest can be applied anywhere, but it will work particularly well in gardens located in colder regions, prone to frost and snow, where the plants will stand like ice sculptures. Use strong stemmed herbaceous perennials and grasses such as Angelica (Angelica sp.), Fennel (Foeniculum sp.), Sedum (Hylotelephium sp.), Sea Holly (Eryngium sp.), Alliums (Allium spp.) and Elephant Grass (Miscanthus sp.). One of my favourite grasses to use is Korean Feather Grass (Calamagrostis brachytricha). After finishing its stunning late season display, it holds its upright, vase-like habit well, and its airy plumes positively glisten when even a light frost settles.

When planting, consider that you will most likely be viewing the display through the window from the warmth and comfort of your home, and adjust your plant placement accordingly, ensuring that the most sculptural plants will be shown off to their best. Once planted, you can enjoy the colourful display during the growing season, before leaving it more or less to its own devices through the winter months, only tidying everything up in early spring. I like to dry seed-heads and incorporate them with more sculptural growth from the garden into seasonal wreaths and other decorations. Being able to bring plant material in from the garden to decorate the home is a real joy, especially during winter, and here you can be as bold and imaginative as you like, using the plants that you have grown to create unique and personal displays. For the local wildlife that make their homes outside, leaving the garden to it through the winter will also be highly beneficial, providing insects, birds and perhaps some small mammals with both food and shelter, which can be in short supply in borders that are kept too tidy.

If the thought of this is too unruly for your taste, then winter scented plants are something that you might like to investigate instead. Even if you can’t stay and linger in the garden, a blast of beautiful scent as you dart to and from your door will delight your senses and can even boost your mood. I have already mentioned the winter garden staple Sweet Box (Sarcococca sp.), which is powerfully scented despite the size of its tiny flowers. Top of my list for scent is Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’, a fine semi-evergreen shrub that has beautifully fragrant flowers from midwinter, continuing on into spring. If you live in a colder region, then Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ would be an equally fragrant but slightly hardier option. These typically come into bloom in late autumn, producing clusters of light pink and white flowers in succession, right through until spring again. My last recommendation, Wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox), is a bit of a wildcard, due to the fact that there’s not a lot about it to get excited about at other times of the year. However, it certainly lives up to its name, delivering a wonderfully intoxicating fragrance from sunshine-yellow flowers through the winter months. With each of these shrubs, scent levels will vary day to day depending on the weather conditions, particularly with the Viburnum; however, when you walk through a cloud of their sweet perfume, I can guarantee that you will want to stop and follow your nose.

Winter maintenance

Gardens are ever-evolving things and plans can take a good few years to develop and take shape, but it’s good to have a destination in mind. While you are deciding what you might like to do, there are a few other jobs for January that you can tick off in the meantime.

If you fancy having a go at growing your own food for the table this year, you should definitely get your skates on and get your seeds ordered in the next few weeks if you haven’t already. The season for sowing many of our favourite fruit and vegetable seeds is fast approaching and it’s always best to buy your seeds in plenty of time and make a plan even if it’s just scribbled roughly on the back of an envelope. While it’s a bit early to sow most things, now is a very good time to plant Rhubarb (Rheum spp). The plants should be planted with their crowns just below the surface of the soil, with a good amount of wellrotted compost dug in to make them comfortable— and a bit of manure, too, if you can get it. If you are planting more than one, the plants should be spaced about a metre apart.

As if you needed another excuse to sit down with a cup of tea and a seed catalogue (and what gardener doesn’t love that?), it is also a good time to start ordering flower seeds and dormant Dahlia tubers if cut flowers are more your thing.

Another useful task for a cold January evening that you will be glad that you did in the months to come, is to give your gardening tools a bit of annual maintenance. I find this to be quite an enjoyable, relaxing and meditative part of gardening anyway, and so it has become something that I do every month or so. I sense that I could be in the minority here, and one good clean up a year should be perfectly adequate for most gardeners. The one piece of maintenance kit that I could not do without is an abrasive cleaning block. These are brilliant for rejuvenating any corroded or gummed up metal tools, and I find them particularly useful for maintaining anything that has cutting blades. They can even help remove years of rust, given a bit of elbow grease, so if you have inherited any old tools from your parents or grandparents, or if you just like to collect beautiful old garden implements, then one of these could help you to breathe new life into them. You can achieve similar results using wire wool, but I find that the blocks are easier to use and create far less mess. I use a few different types including the Crean Mate from Niwaki® and the Garryflex™ (60 and 120 grit).

I have found that taking relatively simple tools like loppers, shears and some secateurs apart completely aids the removal of all the trapped grime and gunk from their mechanisms. Most of these tools tend to only have about five or six parts and are very easy to put back together; however, some fancy brands of secateurs can pose a bit more of a mental challenge due to a higher number of components. If you don’t trust yourself to be able to put the 3D puzzle back together again (and, having taken a few apart myself, I don’t blame you), then just leave them as they are and clean them as best you can as a single piece; they’ll still end up in better shape than they were before.

When cleaning your tools, first give them an initial wipe over with a damp cloth to remove the remains of any soil or sap, and allow them to air dry. You can then take them apart if you feel you need to, before going to town on the metal parts with your abrasive block or wire wool. Once you’ve removed all of the built up dirt from their surfaces, the next stage is sharpening— which can be a bit of an art form. There are all sorts of videos online which explain exactly how to sharpen specific tools properly, so if you’re feeling unsure about your technique, YouTube will doubtless have the answer. For hand tools with cutting blades, I use a small Felco 903 sharpening stone, and for larger tools, such as spades and half-moons, I’ve lately started using a blade sharpener from Multi-Sharp® that fits on the end of a power drill and speeds up the job no end.

Once sharp, blades and other metal parts can be finished off with a thin coat of three-in-one oil or Camellia oil (C. oleifera), which will prevent them from rusting. Anything with a wooden handle will definitely appreciate a thin coat of boiled Linseed oil (Linum usitatissimum) and will look lovely once it’s finished. The oil will nourish the handle, helping to preserve it, although it can change the colour of the wood slightly. If you would prefer something a little lighter that doesn’t cause as much of a change in colour, then culinary Walnut oil (Juglans regia) can be used instead and will make the natural grain in the wood stand out beautifully. Pop your tools in a well-ventilated place, such as a garage or draughty shed, and leave the oils to cure. By the time you feel ready to tackle the garden again in spring, your newly rejuvenated tools will be a joy to use.