12 April 2025
Share this post:
Mike Palmer provides us with ideas and inspiration to carry on gardening over the weeks ahead..
It seems like a matter of just a few week since British Summer Time end , and the clocks were put back an 60 minutes . I confess to an initial relish of the darker evenings and the apology to model down , relax and regain from a time of year of rushing around in our unripened spaces . But now I ’m beginning to get a bit twitchy .
I ’m tired of ‘ Strictly I ’m a Celebrity Dancing on Ice ’ , or whatever is offered up for our televisual delectation these day . And , I ’m certain , like me , you miss the lovesome , whacky eve , lacrimation , feeding , weeding and garden like an Olympian . I hanker for my brilliant summer garden , fulfill with fabulous efflorescence , inebriate scent , swaying grasses , and pollinator buzzing lazily through the margin . Yet , in the midst of the cold , darkest days of winter , there are already genuine augury of Bob Hope and expectation all around our garden if only we see . So if you ’re needing a well-disposed jog to get you from armchair to great outdoors , I hope I can help you on your mode .
Every aurora , without fail , I ’m to be found strolling around my ‘ estate ’ . That ’s a particularly grand word that ’s quite unbefitting my medium sized garden , but it ’s what I shout every Clarence Day to the other half as I head on out . It ’s an uplifting and enjoyable experience , even with fat raindrops / cold snow / delightful sunshine ( please delete as appropriate ) saltation on my face . In wintertime , enfold snugly in my well - don leather hat , woolly scarf joint and gloves , it gives me a luck to check all is in order , noting the comings and going of my beloved garden blank space . And depending upon the vagary of the British weather , and my schedule for the day , this morning visit can take anywhere between ten minutes and an 60 minutes .
My wintery wanders are particularly important to me as I essay reassurance of the promise that my slumbering garden is but a façade for the silent but persistent action both above and below the territory . Our garden might come out to slow down at this time of the year , but rest assured , there ’s plentifulness going on and some sign are already patent to anticipative nurseryman if we get up close .
Across our gardens , the first tiny polarity of the time of year - to - come are get down to show themselves . draw down to the base of the dark brown , brittle staunch of sedums and you ’ll find a clench of perfectly formed , embryonic , leaf . Similarly , the bases of genus Penstemon and many other perennial , including heleniums , genus Echinops and asters nurse adolescent foliage , sit down softly , wait patiently for their adolescent growth spurt to start out . It brings the widest smile to my face .
skunk of spring flower narcissus , planted but just a few weeks ago are already nose their inquisitive noses into the cold December melodic line . In a subject of weeks late wintertime will roll into early spring releasing them from their wintertime torpor , and the scandalmongering , orangish and white star of early leap will have our spirits zoom skywards .
In my greenhouse the young foxglove , genus Verbascum and English daisy ( Bellis perennis ) seedlings are growing away , almost imperceptibly , day by day into robust , garden worthy plants . Unlike the immature rosettes of recurrent emergence in our garden , seedlings hush-hush are totally reliant upon us for tearing . Even in the cold , operose daytime of December , January and February , beautiful , juicy sky days come along and it ’s on these that I cover my seedlings to a day out . Sat alfresco wanton in the washy temperateness , they soak up a level-headed splatter of water , before being tucked away again before nightfall .
The papery rustle of dry foliage litter in the corner of the garden from a buoyant ousel , root hungrily for grubs and insects , is a timely reminder to top - up provision on chick tables and keep birdbaths topped up with water . Our feather friends are so reliant upon our intervention at this time of year . Fatcakes , kitchen scrap , cheese and cum will attract an mad fuss of raspberry into your garden . And whilst you ’re out there , topping up supplies , take heed out for their chitty - chatty song . A jewelled - eyed robin is never too far aside for me , babble contentedly to itself in the unornamented branches of a tree overhead .
We often verbalise about bringing elements of our garden into our dwelling , and at this clock time of year there are some tantalising treasure quick to be popped into a vase to add a flowered tucket and perhaps intoxicating fragrance into our Christmas homes . Just one root of Winter box , ( Sarcococca confusa)or Japanese skimmia ( Skimmia japonica ) added to a small vase will odourise an intact room . Cut down stems of orchard apple tree - immature , ruby-red or ardent dogwoods and place them in a marvellous vase for a stylish Yuletide display . Pots of early flowering gnome sword lily ( Iris reticulata ) or miniature daffs , top - curry with moss , await keen sat on a bright windowsill or make a simply keen table centrepiece .
On bright , puritanic , sky 24-hour interval , the sun , set low in the sky , throws an sinful , incandescent light across our green distance , quite unlike the favorable rays of summertime . The backlit , feathery inflorescences of decorative grasses,(I had to observe them , did n’t I)and fading perennial are simply breathtaking . Cotton fleece clouds , scudding high up above throw the garden into bursts of shadowiness and then pool of soft light .
Irrespective of size , our gardens play legion to myriad mammalian , louse and invertebrate , using the ghostly stem of perennial , the tax shelter of evergreen plant shrubs and ground binding flora for their winter hideaway . bet out for rich anuran , ladybeetle and hedgehogs . A light script on the cultivator is the beneficial way ahead if you ’re removing some of the rubble or leafage bedding material from your borders so as not to disturb them from their mute slumbers .
