Winter is a dormant time for plants, so snuggle down and enjoy some gardening inspo while planning for spring
Top of the pops
Around 100 species of poppy grow around the world, but it’s the red Flanders poppy (Papaver rhoeas) that will always hold a special place in Kiwi hearts. Poppies grow best in well-drained soil with full sun and the seeds need to be sown directly into the soil. Don’t bury the seeds, a light sprinkling of seed-raising mix on top is all you’ll need for germination.
Time out
As the wet and cold and darkness set in, there’s time to snub your gumboots, ditch the hoe and turn on the telly for some armchair gardening. If such apparent idleness makes you uneasy, look upon it as research, finding inspiration and pleasure in the toils and imaginations of others. Tool sharpening and cleaning, or seed sorting while you watch may also assuage any guilt.
Some suggestions: The Don is an erudite guide around greatness in the fabulous Monty Don’s Adriatic Gardens (Apple TV+). Though for more practical know-how, catch up with him in Gardeners’ World (YouTube.com). Seed: The Untold Story (seedthemovie.com) is an absorbing look at the role of seeds and the threat to biodiversity in food production – among other topics. Less provocative is Gardening With Soul (ondemand.nzfilm.co.nz) set over a year in a Wellington community garden and starring nonagenarian nun Sister Loyola. In the same vein as The Great British Bakeoff/Sewing Bee/Throw Down etc, is The Big Flower Fight (netflix.com) whose contestants vie for victory as they create massive floral sculptures.
How to buy roses
You could just flick up the labels on the roses at your garden centre and purchase the prettiest bloom. Or you could curl up with a big fat rose reference book and lose yourself in the exquisite world of roses. Researching and finding your perfect rose is an enduring journey through colour, shape, form, fragrance, hips and habit. Does a blowsy cerise rambling cabbage rose appeal? Or would you prefer an elegantly refined golden hybrid tea? While finding a rose for a particular spot is entertaining, much more joyful is finding your perfect rose, then finding somewhere to put it. Sourcing a rose is not always straightforward. It may become a matter of scouring online local garden centres and rose nurseries; tracking it down through rose societies and obscure collectors. You may have to order it, then wait a year or so.
Colour coding
Should your hydrangeas’ colour not be to your liking, now is the time to act. Pink hydrangeas will turn blue (and blue ones prevented from turning pink) when the soil’s acidity is increased (as long as the soil contains aluminium, which most do). Up acidity by incorporating coffee grounds, crushed egg shells and ground citrus peel into the soil; or with applications of aluminium sulphate or bluing tonics. Blue blooms can be pinkened by applying lime. White blooms, however, will not change colour; nor will those of the oak-leaf hydrangea. Nor will change happen overnight; the effects won’t be apparent for at least one season of informed and measured application.
Sow to bed
If the ground is not sodden, sow garlic, broad beans, snap, sugar and sweet peas. In the coldest zones hold off until spring.
Asparagus and rhubarb can be divided and replanted in soil replenished with compost.
Consider this: Soil Sieve
Curiously low on the gardener’s priority list, the soil sieve is an implement you never knew you needed so much until you had one. Just put garden soil, leaf mould or compost in the sieve and gently shake. The clumps of dirt, twigs, sticks, stones and other miscellaneous debris will remain in the sieve for further rehabilitation. Meanwhile, in a deeply satisfying manner, down through the wire mesh will fall a flurry of fine crumbly tilth, ideal for seed sowing or potting mix. Larger mesh models can be used for ridding soil from vegetables, and finer ones for winnowing seeds.
Garden metal sieve, $29.99, from Kings Plant Barn
Steal this look
Learn some lessons from the master. The Grande Allee in the famed Giverny garden of French impressionist artist Claude Monet is a sensational sight all summer long. However, many maintain
it is at its finest in late summer when the orange and yellow nasturtiums have sprawled onto the gravel path, and in full bloom are the hot-pink and deep-red dahlias and golden yellow perennial sunflowers. By now, only the odd bloom remains on the pink climbing roses garlanding the arches and framing in green the bold study in colour below.
Apparently, the lolling nasturtiums were a happy mistake. Monet had thought he was planting a neater dwarf variety to soften the beds’ edges but when he saw the interloper’s effect, he liked it and planted them thereafter – thus neatly illustrating one of the thrills of gardening. The willingness of a gardener to be open to the unpredictability of nature often leads to sublime scenes. Less so does a blind and obstinate determination to impose one’s preconceptions.
Landscape 101
Few finer structures can be found in any garden than a stone wall. This collection of stacked rocks or stone comes in many guises. It may be made of roughly angled rocks or smooth river stones, beautifully crafted by the hands of a master, or roughly cobbled together by an enthusiastic amateur. In drystone walls, skill and not mortar has been used to join the stones together. While in a gabion wall, it is a series of cages that contain the rocks. Some walls are low, allowing both views to yonder wonders and a place on which to sit, yet still keeping unwanted visitors out. High walls can offer a calming privacy within – think those fabulous old walled monastery gardens which served as a place of both safety and retreat. Retaining walls to halt erosion or to create a terrace are nowadays often only faced with stone, but the effect is that same sublime marriage of nature and humankind.
As handsome as they may be, plants can only enhance stone walls. They offer appealing microclimates for plants to grow plants on or against. Although all aspects of the wall must be considered, such as its relation to prevailing winds and rain, generally on the shadier south side ferns and hellebores will do well. Very many plants will love life on the hotter, sunnier north side. In frost-prone regions it may pay to avoid spring flowerers such as camellias and peonies on the eastern side as the quick thaw after frosts may damage the buds.
Many climbers will relish the chance to clamber up and over a wall. Likewise, there are many tiny plants who will find a home in the cracks and crevices as they gather soil over time. And remember many plants such as some succulents and thyme, alyssum and wallflowers – of course – survive in the tiniest amounts of soil and moisture.
Words by: Mary Lovell-Smith
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