Cuttings and cleaning up
I think I need a fortnight's holiday – without the kids – to get my garden/s put to bed for the winter. Fat chance.
Like everyone else who isn't retired, it will be the odd hour here and there over the next couple of months or so that will matter.
I love this time of year in the garden, despite the fact everything looks an utter mess.
It's the taking stock and planning for next year that I enjoy, together with the perverse joy of pulling up dead stuff and clearing the beds.
Unfortunately, my time-keeping isn't great, so I usually forget to do something crucial until it's too late, like taking cuttings, planting bulbs, or sowing seeds for next year before the ground gets too cold.
While the allotment is still throwing up produce (looking forward to that sweetcorn), it can wait for the massive clear up and digging over it so desperately needs.
But the back garden at home needs a couple of days' work. There's a lot of gardeners who favour the 'leave it until spring' method but I know that, come spring, there will be more to do. I need to clean out the filthy utility-room-cum-potting shed, wash all my pots and cans, get fresh compost in, mulch the beds, sow some early annuals for next year and find room for some vegetable seeds too.
My retired advisers are already way ahead of me. Greenhouses have been sanitised, cutting are already rooting and plans have already been made for next spring.
My urgent jobs include cutting the privet hedges at the front which have been allowed to get too long again. Then the lawn needs a final cut (although I'm not sure many people stopped mowing last year due to the weather).
I'd like to get more cuttings going again like last year. I've got a couple of pelargoniums that I'd like to save via cuttings, rather than by shoving in the shed and hoping for the best.
I visited Emily Mitchell at Cramden Nursery in Northampton this week to see how her preparations are going for next year.
It's odd to see the enormous greenhouses without any plants, but this is part of their big clean up, when every surface and pot is washed down to reduce the chances of any potential disease or pest infecting the plants.
Cramden uses stock plants for their cuttings and will propagate hundreds over the winter ready for sale next spring.
Meanwhile, I need to get as much as possible done while I still can still dig and bend over, as the one thing I don't seem to have a problem propagating is children.
Baby Four is due in February and he/she is already affecting my gardening, as I'm supposed to wear gloves to avoid toxoplasmosis from the soil, which can damage unborn babies. I can't bear gloves, especially when it's wet as they get so claggy. Never mind, I'll have to persuade Bloke to do my dirty work. . .
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Weather for Northampton
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -6 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -5 C to -0 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
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