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Gardening
In Your Garden Monthly gardening ideas and tasks by Andrew Staib, Principal Designer of Glorious Gardens January Resolutions- to enjoy impermanence On a Saturday morning, when you look out of your window, does your garden invite you in or does it look wild, cold and without interest? There is a trend to want our gardens to be like our new kitchens. Spotless, shining and minimal, with plastic decking and AstroTurf that will last not just for our lifetimes but for hundreds of thousands of years hygienic immortality. But there are other ways to look at nature in January. The frosts, snow and rains wreak havoc over the land and the perennials, with millions of years of experience, have scuttled their energy below ground to hibernate. The ghosts of our ancestors sow and repair and pray that they will survive. The remaining stalks, seedheads and saggy stems are slowly becoming next year’s rich soil. In amongst this decaying fabric there are still many signs of life: bird prints, insect cocoons, spider webs lit up with dew and the profound smell of rotting leaves. It is also possible to have a vibrant and colourful garden in this month, which will entice you outside. Armed only with a camping chair, hot-water bottle, blanket and a flask we can soak up the end of beauty and the beauty in the middle of nature’s ruination. A garden can be full of colourful berries and brightly stemmed shrubs, the bark of selected winter trees, interesting structures like internal hedges and topiary plus colourful evergreens peppered amongst winter branches. A January garden can be a thing of great beauty, with both death and life intertwined. As the cold and the lack of sunlight have denuded the garden and the rich juice of Summer has retreated into roots and trunks and bulbs, the bare bones of a garden can give a deep sense of artistry and peace. We accept that things die, the twilights of winter remind us that all things come to an end, and yet life is powerful and patient. Even in January, often the coldest month of the year, we can sniff the stirrings of new beginnings. And while we are busy vowing never to overeat or drink again, the lean times of Winter can offer us something essential - a monochrome impartial beauty where things are not set up to entertain us or sell us something. A Good Structure A garden no matter how small needs to have a well-
proportioned and interesting structure from which Spring and Summer can burst out of. As a designer I know that if the structure I have created looks good in Winter nothing much can go wrong with the infilling of plants later on. That’s why garden designers put most of their energy into making sure the layout works first before anything else.
