I don’t care what the poets say winter is not death but rather a time for renewal – like our sleep, writes garden manager Paul Richens. Fruit trees actually need at least 53 days of dormancy (technically called chill hours) or like me they wake up grumpy. Do you think plants dream now there’s a thought! Seasons, like the weather are neither good nor bad but sadly many people dread winter so lets try and cheer them up.
- Early bulbs, the scent of winter sweet, winter jasmine flowers, ivy flowers, holly berries, mistletoe, hips and haws, bryony berries, winter skies and low sun, water droplets on Kale leaves, collecting potatoes from your store, leek soup, cauliflower cheese, sweet potato hot pots, red ruby chard glowing in sunlight, parsnips sweetened after being touched by a frost. Seeing the architecture of trees, winter pruning.
The battle between our snail and slug friends and us is now on hold till next year but there are other who would eat our precious winter veg. Of course I’m thinking of pigeons both the scruffy London pigeons and the rather beautiful wood pigeons both of who will happily munch all your greens in a sitting. Time to get out some netting and put up a barrier.
Don’t forget that the falling leaves are returning goodness to the soil – nature wastes nothing.