Page 46 - Garden News

Readers’ Over the
gardens
now!

FENCE
Swedes, as well
as turnips and
cabbages, make
tasty winter meals

We have some real
winter structure with The overwintered
Photos: Derek Brooks
trees, bushes and chrysanth stools are now
good landscaping Photos: Jane and John Hartley on the warming bench

Back to a different story!

Jane and John braved the elements to do We rely on our
John Hartley a bit of tidying. shrubs to give Photos: Tony McCabe Stinking iris and
He has also been doing work the garden its bright berries
A pretty colour and form
garden on the on the fruit cage, increasing the
Hampshire coast height by about 60cm (2ft).
with a vegetable When he was picking fruit last
patch, stream and woodland. year he found he was constantly
hitting his head on the top.
e’ve returned from our The only vegetables we’re
autumn trip abroad to picking at the moment are
W a very changed garden Brussels sprouts as they’re
than the one we left in October. doing really well.
Then there were dahlias, roses We haven’t been plagued by
and fuchsias still in bloom, but snow here on the south coast,
now it’s a different story! I didn’t but we’ve had a few hard frosts
have time for gardening during and a lot of rain. On our clay soil
the run-up to Christmas, but that means a soggy lawn and
pools of water in some places.
Amazingly, we still have roses
blooming, and we’ve enough evergreens to brighten
everything up. A recent visitor to
the house, who lives most of the
These robust roses year in Venice and the rest in
are fighting off the
weather! Right, central London, was delighted
bright cornus and and surprised to see so much
clipped evergreens colour in the middle of winter!
There are also some very early
signs of stirring growth – catkins
on the corkscrew hazel, big buds
on the hydrangea, daffodils
springing from the ground and
new red leaves on the photinia
are all good to see.
Like most gardeners, we’re
busy planning for the rest of Strawberry runners are
the year – roll on spring! poed up and brought
inside for early fruit
46 Garden News /January 27 2018