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The Garden in January (2012)

House in snow

What a difference a year makes: the same scene in January 2011 and January 2012.

This January is a million miles away from the same month last year. This year is relatively warm, with temperatures generally a few degrees above freezing. This means that the soil is still workable and it's possible top do all sorts of things that could not be done if it were colder. If you have any unplanted bulbs left over from the autumn, get them in the ground now. Even if they are starting to send up green shoots, most will be just fine, and some bulbs - such as tulips - actually benefit from being planted late.

This is the time for resolutions, as well as looking back and looking ahead. Our own garden was a marshy field just over three years ago. It is surrounded by trees and bordered by a lively stream. We have kept it as natural as we could while also indulging in our love of plants. Parts of it have been left wild, such as the lower section which is a boggy meadow along the stream, full of meadowsweet and rushes. And parts of it have been tamed more as we have to have some areas of mown grass for circulating around the house.

Here are our gardening resolutions for our own garden in 2012 :

  1. Get a polytunnel. This will allow us to grow and propagate a wide range vegetables, and also give us a working space for when it’s wet. About ten years ago we were head gardeners in a private estate in Co Cork and a polytunnel was a fabulous aid to having a longer and more successful growing season.
  2. Brush a layer of grit over the mown areas of grass. The soil in our site is almost pure clay. It is very fertile but has absolutely no drainage. By brushing on a layer of horticultural grit it will make it easier to get around without mushing the soil into a paste. We will do this in the spring.
  3. Plant more fruit trees along our drive. We are lucky to have a long driveway and our plan is plant as many edible plants as possible along this. We already have several apples, medlars, quince and walnuts, but this winter we want to put in more, including hazels, pears, cherries and blueberries. Nothing is as satisfying (or easy) as home-grown fruit.
  4. Prune the fruit trees and bushes that we have. When we moved in we planted a 'fruit ring': a circle about 10 metres in diameter which is planted with a mixture of apples, currants, gooseberries and rugosa roses. We've found that during the summer this was our main sitting area.
  5. Top-up the gravel. After three years the gravel on the drive and where we park had  started get pretty thin. We have found a local quarry that sells gravel inexpensively. A top-up will mean that we can get from our car and into our house without picking up mud on the way.
  6. Keep on top of the mowing. Despite having a garden of about an acre, only a small portion of it is mown grass. We have a fabulous, modern take on the old-fashioned push mower, a Jonsered push mower from Sweden. This is actually easier to use than any motor mower. The only thing it is not good for is long grass, so we need to cut the grass regularly for it to be worth using.
  7. Get a proper garden shed for tools. At the moment we have tools stored in the strangest and most inconvenient of places. We have one tools shed, but this isn't big enough as it is filled up with overflow from the house. We need a dedicated tool shed.
  8. Make a really good leaf mould pile. We are surrounded by deciduous trees and have no shortage of leaves. All we need to do is collect leaves and store them in loose, chicken wire enclosures. A year later we will have excellent mulch.
  9. Plant Christmas trees. We have plenty of space for a small stand of Christmas trees. Growing our own is easy, and if we plant 2 or 3 every year we'll have one for ourselves and a couple to give to friends and neighbours. We'll plant a mixture of Abies (Fir) and Picea (Spruce).
  10. Plant our left-over tulips. This year we didn't sell all the tulips we had bought in for selling on DYG. This is a shame, and we think it's because tulips are so readily available in supermarkets. However, they will be put to good use (as they have been in previous years), as tulips look fabulous when planted into grass. We have planted them into our 'fruit circle' where they have looked fabulous.

Tulips

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