Don’t ever close the gate on your garden (From Gazette & Herald)

Don’t ever close the gate on your garden

8:30am Wednesday 26th October 2011 in Gardening

BRIAN DEIGHTON, head gardener at Castle Howard, shares his tips and advice on getting your garden ready for the winter in his last column of the year

IT doesn’t take much to turn yourself from somebody who simply has a garden into a proper gardener.

If there’s one bit of advice I can give as this series of columns comes to an end for winter, it’s to keep an interest in your plot over the coming months. In short, to become a proper gardener.

People who just have gardens don’t plan ahead; they close the garden gate come October and don’t really do anything until Easter weekend.

A real gardener will be busy now, trying to get spring bulbs in before the end of November. A gardener is always thinking about the next season; improving and enhancing the flower displays and vegetable crops they got the year before.

Now’s the time to be sorting out winter bedding, such as pansies and forget-me-nots. Bring tender plants such as freesias and anything special into the greenhouse.

As an aside, a greenhouse is something that makes a gardener. You don’t have to buy new – plenty of people who treat themselves to something a bit bigger are happy for somebody to take away their old one for free. Once you get a greenhouse you’ll wonder how you ever managed before and there’ll be nothing to stop you becoming a fully-fledged gardener.

Before any seriously bad weather comes our way, get out and divide up herbaceous plants that are outgrowing their patch. Why not offer a few of these gifts from nature to your neighbour? One other challenge for the winter months must surely be to get to know the people at the other side of your garden fence or wall.

They might have lived there longer than you and have invaluable advice to give about the type of soil and what they’ve found grows well and what’s been a waste of money. You never know, you might get some spare plants coming over from their side of the fence.

What about planting some roses?

Put bare rooted ones in with plenty of well-rotted horse manure. If there are any gaps among your fruit trees get new ones in now.

It’s a laborious job, but if you’re a gardener, rather than somebody who just has a garden, there’s no getting away from raking up the fallen leaves. The longer you leave them, the worse the job gets. Gather them up, either in black bin liners with the top tied, or in something like an old dustbin with the bottom cut out so the worms can get in, and they’ll compost down into the most amazing mulch.

We’ve mentioned horse muck for the roses. Get some extra to dig through the vegetable garden – you’ll reap the awards next year.

Talking about the vegetable garden, now is the time to get some broad beans planted and the shortest day is traditionally when garlic is put in. It should be harvested on the longest day.

When the snow comes try to find a moment to knock it off hedges. Here at Castle Howard we were left with quite a bit of misshapen yew hedging as the snow had frozen and made a mess before we got to it. Keep an eye on trees as well. If there are any long branches cut them back by at least a third so they don’t get damaged in any storms.

A good trick for ponds, when ice comes, is to rest a heated old pan on the top so it melts. This is much better than breaking the ice which can send shockwaves that could kill the fish. Another top tip is to reduce the level of the pond if it is surrounded by concrete paving. This way the flags won’t be lifted if there’s a severe frost.

We’ll be sorting out Christmas trees here before we know it. If the weather is really bad and you can’t get out into the garden, why not settle down in front of the fire with a seed catalogue?

You’ll know you’ve become a gardener when it becomes one of life’s little pleasures to prepare a seed order in anticipation of the coming year.