Wishing you all a fantastic 2011, I cannot wait to get out in the garden to get a head start on the borders giving my plants the advantages of an early start. It was a welcome site to see my grass emerge unscathed from the long periods of frost and snow, fungus diseases (snow mould) do tend to become a nuisance in the winter.  Looking at your borders try to cut down your herbaceous plants to soil level, looking at the gaps now is the best time to order your seed catalogues, bare rooted trees and shrubs and Groboxes. I’m focusing this year on more winter flowering shrubs to give me berries throughout the winter  Chimonanthus praecox ‘Wintersweet’ is one of my favorites as Sarcococca confusa ‘Sweet box’, however a main concern for me this winter was feeding the ground feeding birds such as our native songbirds, so I will be planting a number of step over Apple trees. Keep your Lawns edged and protect your borders with chipped bark to control the growth of weeds.  Sort out your shed and greenhouse and try to get your shears sharpened and lawnmower serviced, if you need new tools take advantage of the winter sales.  Plan a list of your landscaping projects for 2011 and most importantly have a fantastic gardening year!

I always feel it is not worth cutting back the dead stems of herbaceous perennials (those that die down below soil then return every year) as they transform the border with silvering of frost and snow. Evergreens are star performers in the winter garden. Golden- variegated leaves make a real splash of sunshine on gloomy winter days, Holly is my favourite especially ‘Golden King’ or ‘Golden Queen’  you can also shape to any size to fit pots, tubs or borders.

Planting your Winter Vegetable garden outdoors now is perfect for sowing your Broad Beans and Peas, Broad Beans when germinated are thick stems with beautiful black and white flowers, Peas have long tendrils and stems that want to hold on to climb anything and everything!

The GroBox Winter Flower garden has a selection of winter flowering plants that add a splash of colour in the darkest days.

Feeding the Birds has benefits both ways by making the difference between life and death in the cold winter, and in return they will eat your garden pests. Sadly they do become dependent on the food you put out in Winter  so continue to do so once you’ve started. Try to ensure bird baths have fresh water and put a football in your ponds to stop freezing. Winter is a good time to plant, so keep a garden diary, then you can look back at your successes and failures. It is also a good memory jogger for garden jobs in future years.

• Decrease watering of pot plants
• Ensure good weed control, mulch with chippings.
• Transplant pot grown biennial flowering plants, ‘too big for that pot’ shrub, tree.
• Plant Vegetable, Herb, flower GroBoxes
• Sow Hardy Annuals in the borders
• Sow Grass
• Reduce your mowing of lawns to fortnightly
• Cut back herbaceous plants as their stems wither
• Remove old canes and tie in new on all berries
• On cold still nights protect tender plants from frosts with fleece
• Collect and Dry Seeds
• Harvest and store everything before it all goes.

Checklist

• Plant out vegetables grown under cover like Courgettes and Sweetcorn.
• Tie in Sweet Peas and Annual climbers
• If you run short or salad vegetables, sprout some seeds on your windowsill.
• Snap off Tomato side shoots as they appear.
• Continue to remove suckers from Roses, Lilac and other plants before they get too large.
• Stake Gladioli

Plant night scented plants

How exciting as we have just experienced the vernal equinox, this means from now on our days get lighter and brighter right up to our longest day in June. It’s amazing to see how nature reacts to these changes by a flurry of activity in our gardens, parks and towns. My vegetable GroBox which I planted on a very frosty February morning has now burst into life with a number of seedlings pushing their heads through my borders. I know a number of our gardeners club have written to me saying how wonderful it is to see their gifts springing into life. The Crocuses and Snowdrops are just withstanding the continued frosts and torrential rain we have had here on GroBox Hill, (It is very windy too).

So what to do next in our garden as we try to use those precious few hours at weekend.  Mow lawns, cover your borders with chipped bark or a similar organic mulch to try to avoid weeding (I believe there is more to life than weeding, and it is something I do not do). If mulch is not your thing, then use a living ground cover, such as Vinca (a bit rampant) Laminum, Ivy (variegated) Cotoneaster horizontal-is to name a few.

Pots by your door with wonderful scented plants to welcome you home, this year all my hanging baskets are going very low maintenance with grasses as centre pieces and nasturtiums hanging down. So just plant your GroBoxes, and enjoy your gardens by getting out as much as your can, take inspiration from walks, parks and gardens in your local area. Have a wonderful spring.