Outdoors

Start planning for your spring gardening

Article by Your Home and Garden

Spring is just around the corner and it’s time to get a head start on planning for the new season

Winter may not be quite over but spring with all its joys and glories beckons. In preparation for this great awakening, thought should be given as to what to grow in the coming months. Seeds need to be chosen, those miscellaneous half packets sorted (and old ones biffed), catalogues perused and orders made.

Those in warmer districts or in the enviable possession of a glasshouse will be able to get more tender varieties of vegetables germinating, happy in the knowledge that, all going well, they can be planted out in September. Those in areas prone to frosts and cold springs may be best advised to wait till the end of the month before sowing – under cover – the likes of tomatoes, capsicums and chillies, eggplants, pumpkins, courgettes, cucumbers and basil. Tomatoes, for example, take six to eight weeks from germination to be large enough to be transplanted. Kept inside for too long they tend to go leggy.

Broad beans, peas, spinach, radish, rocket and spring onions may be sown directly into the garden, and asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, kale, onions and shallots planted outside.

Chit chat

To give potatoes a head start, chit them by placing in a single layer in a dry and warm place till the sprouts emerge and grow to about 1cm. This can take several weeks. Plant 25cm apart in 15cm trenches and save the excavated soil to mound the potatoes later.

Top and repot

Repot and divide indoor plants if need be. It’s an oft-neglected task, but topping up with, or repotting in fresh potting mix every few years, will give them a real boost. Many flower seeds may be sown outside now. What varieties will depend on your location, so check first. Plant summer and autumn flowering bulbs.

Steal this look

Touted to be the most influential in recent history, Sarah Price’s The Nurture Landscapes Garden at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show is both painterly and romantic, with a distinctive, unusual yet exciting palette of dusky browns, golds, plums and lilacs. Its hero plants are moody, off-coloured bearded irises in coppers, mauves and honey; their sculptural forms moodily cast against the lime-rendered straw-bale walls. Washed in soft pinky, peachy vegetable-based paints, these walls are etched with tracery of Rosa mutabilis and wisteria. Deep-burgundy Aeonium ‘Zwartkop’ punctuates the beds, adding surprising frankness. The support plantings arising from the muted, warm-toned shingle are sparse. They include murky grey poppies, feathery fennels, lime euphorbia, angelica, silver stachys, opportunistic grasses, wayward saplings and trees, notably Elaeagnus ‘Quicksilver’, which have been opened up by pruning, framing vistas, with a rare delicacy. All in all, a rather exquisite garden – and a look worth borrowing.

How to make seed-raising mix

Seed-raising mix used as garden soil can be too heavy and dry out too quickly for small seeds. Such soil may also contain weed seeds and pathogens, which hinder seedling growth. While seed-raising mix can be bought, it is easy enough to make – and you’ll know just what is in it, which is important for organic gardeners. The exact proportions are not set in concrete, a fine-textured mix is best to cosset the seeds and seedlings, yet should have enough air around the granules for air to circulate and excess moisture to drain. The key ingredients are river sand or vermiculite to aid drainage and sifted compost. Worm castings, leaf mould and litter, humus, coconut coir (for water retention), and well-rotted sawdust can also be added. Mix all together and use. As with all potting mixes, it is advisable to wear a mask while working with this, and to work outside.

Landscape 101

Always awash with fabulous gardens, the Chelsea Flower Show is internationally renowned as a setter of trends (and sealer of less new ones). Last year’s innovation is this year’s convention. No surprises in seeing eco credibility now officially considered in the judging, and nary an inch of mown lawn to be had anywhere at the show.

However, If Chelsea 2023 is to be remembered for one thing it will surely be for the new portmanteau “edimentals” – edible plants doubling up as ornamentals, and the inclusion of edible plants that are formerly more frequently grown as ornamentals, such as viola, pansies, nasturtiums, hosta, and interestingly, beech, hawthorn and ground elder. The edimental movement also recognises and uses the architectural qualities of edibles such as cardoon, globe artichokes and cavolo nero. Practitioners are urged to consider colour. Woe betide the planter of lilac-flowering chives next to variegated yellow thyme.

The true value of edimental gardening can be found in smaller gardens where fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers form a rich biodiversity. A mix that will now contain resilient plants, formerly known as weeds, which are to be valued for their aesthetic and environmental qualities.

Little wonder, with climate change bearing down on the nation, that woodlands and trees featured in most show gardens in an eloquent expression of the notion that there is always a place for a tree, no matter how confined the space. Airy, multi-trunked trees such as gleditsia, which allow filtered light, were favoured in the dappled woodlands; their grand and gracious variety of plants emphasising the importance of biodiversity. The numerous woodlands were also quick to promote that age-old idea of gardens as places of tranquil immersion. Winding paths and ambient seating encouraged a leisurely traverse, giving visitors time to pause and reflect – even moving one designer to describe his garden as the horticultural equivalent of slow food.

Consider this

When you just don’t have the space, money or need for a glasshouse but would love somewhere compact to give tender seedlings and plants a head start or protection when the weather is not to their liking, a cold frame is the answer. Traditionally, these are made of wood and glass, 30cm-50cm high, with a glass lid that opens up and can be kept propped open at various degrees for temperature and air flow. More contemporary versions are upright cabinets doors at the front as well as on top, and shelves, which means more space per square metre – fantastic when space is really tight.