Salad leaves don't just have to be for summer

shutterstock_1579975177.jpg-scaled.jpg

Win with winter salads

GN142784.jpg

It’s time to move shrubs

Sunflowers are a must-have in summer.jpg

It’s time to start sowing sunflowers

Tomato article hero  v2 1200.jpg

Start sowing tomato seeds now

sweet peas are a summer favourite.jpg

Grow the best sweet peas

BERGENIA-shutterstock_2380506193-scaled.jpg

Grow guaranteed frost-hardy plants!

WOODY PRUININGS.jpg

How to deal with woody prunings

Winter brassicas.jpg

Sow winter Brassicas in trays

SOW ANNUALS.jpg

SOW ANNUALS

Patio.jpg

Grow fruit and veg on the patio

start tender edibles.jpg

Start tender edibles

prune roses.jpg

Prune Roses

prepare for spring seed sowing.jpg

Prepare for spring seed sowing

plant up a potted bulb display.jpg

Plant up a potted bulb display

FESTIVE FLAIR.jpg

Add some festive flair

GNNH164400.jpg

Bring herbs in from the cold

Autumn-pond-care.jpg-scaled.jpg

Care for ponds this autumn

f714d028-d569-43c4-945a-ecf29878c280.jpg

What can I do about my poorly bay trees?

BrandSiteArticle_GN_1600X900-copy-9.jpg

Subscribe to Garden News magazine

10 ways to perk up your late-season borders!

shutterstock_595836158.jpg

Planting low-flowering plants along the edge of the path

Plant-up-garden-paths-1600x900-1.jpg

Plant Up Path Edges

Birdwatch-article.jpg

The Big Garden Birdwatch is back!

Hedgehog.jpg

How to help hedgehogs

Grasses, perovskia and veronicastrum sparkle in frost

Wisley Surrey design Piet Oudolf borders Alamy.jpg

Create a winter garden wonderland

GAF2M7.jpg

Plant tulips for perfect spring pots

Create a winter foliage display that will be useful too

Herbs in pots -  small main pic copy.jpg

Plant herbs in winter containers

STIHL-competition.png

Win the latest STIHL hedge trimmer!

website-1600x900-1.jpg

Enjoy your outdoor space

Light.png

Serious Lights can help you to see clearly

growing bulbs.jpg

How To Care For Bulbs Such As Daffodils And Tulips After Flowering

XMAS LEFTOVERS.jpg

Use up the Christmas leftovers!

sow ann main.jpg

Sow annuals direct in borders

Plants

Flowers Shrubs Trees

Fruit and Vegetables

Advice

Beginners

Garden Maintenance

Garden Design

## Some basic maintenance will protect any wildlife and keep the water healthy

Ponds provide tremendous habitat for wildlife but after an active year, autumn is a good time to carry out any maintenance, such as checking filters.

If algae, blanket weed or duckweed are smothering the pond’s surface, remove as much as possible with a net or rake. Let the weed drain of water, then place it on the side of the pond. It’s likely pond skaters, snails and small fish will get caught in the haul, so carefully turn the waste and work through the pile to release trapped creatures; look out for any that may need a helping hand to get back in the water.

As trees shed leaves, inevitably some will fall into ponds, so skim the water’s surface to remove debris, then cover it with a net. Try and prevent leaves from sinking to the bottom as decomposing leaves increase water nutrient levels, which helps algae and pond weed bloom.

Algae growth can be slowed by floating a bale of barley straw in the water. As the straw rots it creates a chemical reaction, which naturally stunts algae growth.

Over time decaying material accumulates into a thick sediment, so try running a fine mesh net along the bottom to remove some of this material. Water with low oxygen levels will cause a build-up of other gases potentially toxic to fish, so if your pond smells of rotting eggs, act now!

**1** Algae and blanket weed quickly accumulates. Gently rake the weed and lift it out of the water.

**2** Leave waste material on the side of the pond so wildlife caught in the weed can jump back into the water.

**3** Thin out congested plants. It helps light penetrate the water and ensures the surface isn't clogged.

**4** Remember to put back any nets. This prevents herons from eating fish and leaves falling in the water.

### **You can get instant access to our current issue with a :a[Digital subscription]{href='https://www.greatmagazines.co.uk/garden-news-magazine?utm_source=gardennewsmagazine.co.uk&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=bau_gardennews&amp;utm_content=article_slug' }. Try it now for only 99p and get more expert advice every week!**

Here’s what to grow through the cold months for a fresh and healthy harvest

**Words** Greg Loades **Photos** Shutterstock

While that spring feeling of being able to start growing literally hundreds of edibles may have passed, there are still a lot of crops we can begin growing now. There are so many benefits, from having something to nurture during the ‘off-season’ to having something healthy and homegrown to harvest, just when our immune systems could probably do with a winter boost!

You may well have winter-hardy veg growing in the ground that will stand through the season to crop next year, such as those indestructible broad beans, garlic and overwintering onions. But add some of these winter salads to provide a crop during the coldest days and the grow-your-own season really never stops.

Temperatures are still high enough for salad sown now to get established and well-rooted before the winter months arrive. Extra heat and good light levels are the key to getting a good crop and this can be achieved in different ways. If you have a greenhouse you can sow direct into greenhouse beds, or fill some troughs or deep trays with multi-purpose compost and sow on the compost surface. The following crops will grow steadily in an unheated greenhouse if covered with a cloche, which can be removed during the day on mild, sunny days when the temperature outside is 10C or above. Or you can grow on a well-lit windowsill indoors.

In mild areas, you could have a go at growing the plants outside under plastic cloches or fleece but results will vary depending on the severity of the winter. A sheltered corner in well-drained soil will give the best results.

Some garden centres and specialist nurseries will currently be offering plug plants of hearting lettuces or endive, which have already made sturdy young plants, and will steadily mature if grown in a greenhouse. Protect them with a cloche once temperatures start to drop in winter.

The easiest way to sow is to scatter seeds of a salad leaf mix on the compost surface of containers or greenhouse borders, to harvest as a cut-and-come-again crop because no thinning of the crop is necessary. Just pick the leaves when they’re big enough for you by picking the leaves at the base, from the outside of the row or block first and leaving others to keep growing. You can cut the whole crop down with scissors but regrowth can be very slow.

Fill module trays with multipurpose compost and sow a few seeds in each module, then leave the strongest two to grow on and be harvested in their modules when they’ve reached a good size. This works well for salad leaves such as rocket and mizuna. If you want to grow hearting lettuce, thin them to one seedling before planting in the greenhouse border or individual small pots when they have made a sturdy young plant.

Super healthy spinach is a source of fibre, vitamins and antioxidants and is a very useful salad leaf because of its versatility, being good to add to hot dishes as well as a salad garnish. Sow a hardy variety such as ‘Perpetual’, which also has good resistance to bolting and is a fast grower.

Perhaps best known as a thick-stemmed vegetable, chard also makes a good ‘baby leaf’, and colourful varieties such as ‘Rhubarb’ will give you something pretty to look at over winter, too. Plus it’s a good source of iron and vitamins A, C and K.

If you grow one salad leaf outside through autumn and winter, this ultra hardy veg is likely to be the most reliable. Better known for its tough mature leaves that look so beautiful when captured by frost, you can start to grow them now to harvest as juvenile leaves for salads through winter. And it’s rich in Vitamin C, too.

A good source of vitamins A and K, this full-flavoured leaf will develop its distinctive taste best when grown in full sun. Keep picking off the outer leaves as they slowly develop through autumn and winter. Along with kale, this is another brassica, so both are best not grown in soil that has had manure or ericaceous compost added to it.

Packed with antioxidants, this small leaf is big on flavour and just a few small pickings will give your food a big boost when it comes to taste! If you’ve still got some leaves left by spring they will mature into large leaves that can be used in soups and stews as you would use spinach.

A good source of iron and calcium, peas are surely the easiest winter crop to sow! Growing this crop is a good task to do with children, pushing the seeds into modules of multi-purpose compost. If you’ve got any Roottrainers spare, they will be effective for raising a winter crop of pea shoots. Snip them off with scissors once they are about 10cm tall. Add them as a garnish to a dish and pretend you’re eating at a fancy restaurant!

A source of vitamin C, this is truly a cold-busting crop, tolerant of low temperatures as well as helping keep you healthy in winter. Sow it in a block in a large pot or trough and harvest leaves from the outside as they develop. Enjoy its fresh, nutty flavour!

Loose-leaved lettuce can be sown in rows or in pots (at least 25cm wide) for a leafy crop but hearting butterhead lettuces, such as ‘Arctic King’, can be grown to mature towards the end of winter. Look out for them sold as plug plants, ideal for planting in greenhouse borders.

A source of iron and folate, this tasty Oriental salad vegetable is good for outdoor growing because it can tolerate temperatures in single figures. Just cover it with fleece or a cloche if temperatures below freezing are forecast. This is also a brassica so avoid growing it in manured soil.

**Stefan says:** You have two bay trees at the front of your house in what amount to brick containers. The house is north-facing but receives early morning and some evening sun. You go on to say the trees suffered badly in a cold snap last winter. One of them has new shoots arising from the base while the other has leaves on the branches which are now looking rather sickly. You’ve been nursing them with regular watering and feeding, but need advice on what to do next, particularly with the new shoots.

First things first. The situation is not ideal because early morning sun in cold winter weather can be very bad for plants that have frozen tissues. It causes them to thaw quickly, and this can be really damaging. In fact, rapid thawing is much more harmful than severe frost.

I suggest you cut out the stem that is obviously dead but don’t do any pruning of the new leafy shoots. In saying this, bays do have amazing powers of recovery. I remember during one bitterly cold winter many years ago and a truly intense frost, one of our trees that had been about 3.5-4.5m high was browned to a crisp. We cut it back to the stump and glory be; it’s now 3.5m-4.5m high again.

I would add something else, however. Your trees are sharing their containers with a mass of other plants, and this is not helping. Bay trees may be tough, but yours are really having to fight for their existence. I suggest you move the other plants to a different spot and top up the container with a good quality soil-based compost and a handful of slow-release granular fertiliser. Then keep the base clear of any other plants or weeds.

Chives are easy to grow. Just keep plants well watered, especially during long dry spells in summer.

A hardy annual easy to grow from seed each year, mostly grown for its leaves but you can harvest the seeds too.

A great herb to have in the garden, but remember it spreads, so is often best grown in a container.

Another herb that is easy to grow and doesn’t die off in winter so you can pick leaves all year round.

Treat yourself or a friend to a Garden News magazine subscription and get the first 12 issues for only £19.99!

Garden News is the UK's only weekly gardening magazine, with practical and informative advice features from experts, including Carol Klein and Kitchen Gardener, Rob Smith. We'll guide you on what tasks to do in your garden and when to get the jobs done. Discover the best ways to grow your favourite plants together with recommended varieties and planting partners in our in-depth planting features, PLUS, get free seeds worth approximately £132 across the year. Subscribing to Garden News magazine secures you the best price, saving on shop prices.

Don’t move shrubs and trees too often – only do it if you really need to. They may have been sited wrongly, or something nearby is overshadowing them, and now’s the time to move them if you must – but be warned that lots of shrubs and trees will find the process stressful.

The key is to make it as easy for them as possible, so the impact of transplantation is lessened. The bigger the plant, however, the more stress and difficulty it’ll cause it – and you! The likelihood is, though, that you’ve got a young shrub, less than ayear or two old, which needs moving to a better spot and, thankfully, young, small plants don’t mind being moved as much. Both deciduous and evergreen plants can be moved now.

If you can, choose a dull, non-windy day – a bit of rain’s not a problem – so the weather isn’t against you and the plant roots don’t dry out. Don’t try to move extra-large trees – hire a contractor as it’s too much work for one person! Below is a brief guide to successful transplantation. Once transplanted, make sure the plant is adapting well and water evenly and mulch well. As with any establishing plant, fertilise it in early spring as encouragement.

It’s often the case that, all of a sudden in August, your garden flounders and flails and starts to look tired. Gardeners sometimes refer to the ‘late summer flop’, when the long season can take its toll and beds go over. It may be the case that your borders are holding up well – we’ve certainly had good rain and sun to help everything along! But you may just want to pep them up a touch, honing them to late-summer perfection and get them looking good to see you through autumn. Here are a few ways you can plan some new planting and keep your garden looking spectacular for longer.

Take photos to help with planning - Is your garden at the peak of its powers right now? If you’re proud of how it looks at the height of summer, a good tip is to take photos of it. Long shots, border shots and tree shots, as well as close-up plant portraits, will all give you a good overview of what worked and what didn’t, remind you of what you planted and, mainly, it’ll make you feel proud of what you’ve achieved! It’s great to see what it all turns out like, and in the depths of winter, when it’s all just a distant memory, it’s very helpful and cheering indeed.

Make a garden plan - You don’t need to be Monet to get creative and make a garden plan! Stick men and child-like trees and houses are absolutely fine as long as you can get an idea of how your borders are laid out and plan what to put there. So when inclement weather strikes, or you feel inspired on a summer’s evening, break out the tea and cake and start planning, using your drawing.

Note any gaps - Take a close look at your plants and make a note of any gaps that have emerged – either physical gaps, or perhaps spaces in continuous flowering in your scheme. Carry out a quick fix and plug gaps with a few choice plants – try sedums, coloured grasses, some autumn daisies or perhaps tough-as-old-boots erigeron as easy-grow fillers.

Research your plant selection - Rather than picking up what the garden centre tells you to with their limited selection, do a bit of research online or at your local, good-quality nursery as to what floats your boat, but particularly what will work well in your garden. Always keep in mind soil pH and type, aspect, exposure and climate. It’ll work out better for your garden and your wallet in the long run!

Squeeze in a whole new dimension! - Think of all the best gardens you’ve been to and what catches your eye when you go there. It’s always the striking features, isn’t it? Great planting notwithstanding, the focal points have the wow factor. So if you’ve got a few nooks and crannies that need a bit of detail and interest why not add a standard tree in a pot, some clustered pots of succulents, elegant mini statues, lights or even a mirror or two to reflect your wonderful plants in all their glory? Obelisks also break up borders and draw the eye.

How good is your soil? - Your soil works hard through the year and right now it’ll be toiling nineteen to the dozen to keep all your plants fit, healthy and fed. Give it a little pep up if you can between plants with a mulch of compost or leaf mould, grass trimmings or chopped up hedge clippings. It’ll see to those weeds wanting to emerge too, hopefully!

Tend to existing plants - Do you like all your plants, or are there some you could replace? You needn’t waste any healthy ones – simply give them away to fellow gardeners, just be sure they don’t mind being transplanted first. Take a look at perennials and bulbs you can soon be dividing up to increase vigour and health, for replanting elsewhere. Finally, trim back and deadhead flowers and foliage for a late season tidy up.

Mix early, mid and late season interest - Lots of summer plants are beautifully ethereal, wispy, tall and floppy, and are the most likely to look like they’re flagging. Think forward to winter when you’ll want to see stout plants, holding firm against the weather with brilliant foliage, flowers and berries. This means evergreens, of which you can add a few in containers to the back of beds now to firm up the form in borders. This goes for the rest of the year, too. Think about what you want to see poking up every month, delighting and surprising you as each season starts. Add autumn, winter and spring bulbs now and over the next few weeks, while leaving a few spots to add summer bulbs in spring. After you’ve planned what you want to grow, in a couple of weeks or so you can plant some choice herbaceous perennials that span spring, summer and autumn next year.

Crank up the colour! - Think about the colour palette of your beds, particularly when it comes to foliage. Greens of the same colours can lose their interest, so loosen it all up with limes, reds and variegation. Try carex and milium grasses, euonymus and perhaps a cotinus for its stunning, round leaves. Match colour tones and try grading them a little like a rainbow, making the smooth transition into the next colour scheme. Fabulous evergreen foliage will look a real treat, even when most of your flowers have given up the ghost.

Keep it cohesive - Hotchpotch planting does no one any favours. Low-growers may be overshadowed by too-large neighbours and some plants may be hidden from view. Aesthetically it can all look a bit of a mess! When planning new planting areas, exercise a little symmetry and always plant borders in order of eventual height. Plant bulbs and smaller perennials in groups of three to five, either together or dotted about nearby, to link everything together. And if you’re buying plants now, choose larger ones for greater immediate impact, or plants that have new buds emerging so you know you’ll be able to enjoy the display for longer.

The ideal border when it’s all planted up is usually a sort of tapering shape, right from the larger shrubs and perennials poking out at the back, cascading down to the front where smaller pathside plants reside.

Sometimes we just plant where we can, trying to find something we like for the right place. But with good planning and consideration of compact height and habit you can create a lovely low-growing display that doesn’t bury the plants behind it, makes your garden seem bigger, softens the hard edges of your path and will creep and clump prettily at ankle level as you walk past.

Some of the best plants for the job are rockery or alpine plants, so make your way to the alpine section of your garden centre now and you can get some good deals. Planted now they’ll establish well. You could even make these path-edge areas a little more authentic and add pebbles, stones or smallish rocks to complete the look.

Rockery plants usually like good sunshine and really well-drained soil so fork over the soil and add a little grit to each planting hole. Spring’s a great time to enjoy making your little alpine pathside patchwork!

## Garden News Recommendations {#h-garden-news-recommendations}

Evergreen, grass-like little leaf clumps sit below spring and summer pink flower pompoms. Easy to grow in full sun.

Choose small creeping sedums in a range of yellows, greens and reds – they’re so easy and will soon clump and spread.

Mats of humped foliage in neat rosettes stay all year, with spring and summer bursts of usually white or pink flowers. Long-flowering.

Lovely little ‘geranium’ in miniature, which stays tight to the ground and spreads. Tiny pink summer flowers smother the leaves.

What says ‘summer’ better than the big, beautiful symbols of happiness depicted by Vincent Van Gogh in his Sunflowers masterpiece? Unquestioningly, these huge blooms in shades of yellow and gold are stunning and easy to grow.

This weekend is the perfect time to sow seeds where they are to grow. Remember to provide supports for larger varieties straight away, then you’ll know where you planted them and won’t damage the roots later on.

Bigger-bloomed varieties like ‘Giraffe’ can be grown as a companion plant for sweet peas, beans or peas – simply let the legumes scramble up the sunflowers. This not only looks incredible, but the legumes help fix the atmospheric nitrogen into the soil, enabling the sunflowers to grow and bloom better.

‘Racing’ your beans up the sunflower is a great way to get kids interested in growing. You can even plant a squash or courgette underneath to complete a modern version of ‘the three sisters’ planting method.

In a smaller space, miniature sunflowers really come into their own, and I always grow ‘Solar Flare’. This beautiful little plant reaches 60cm (2ft) high, can be grown in the open ground or containers, and each plant provides up to 20 blooms. Your own Van Gogh in your garden!

These smaller, bushy sunflowers can be used as an annual hedge to split a large plot into smaller beds. Bees and insects adore them and birds love to eat the ripe seeds later in the year. During summer, they almost buzz with all the activity around them.

Mexican sunflowers (tithonia) are stunning at the back of the border and their blooms have a long vase life. They typically produce dozens of 5-7.5cm (2-3in) flowers in yellow through to red, and can be sown now.

You can use sunflowers in floral arrangements of all kinds, from patio displays to huge floral arches.

Don’t forget, you can harvest the ripe seeds, roast them in a medium oven for 5-10 minutes and eat them as a healthy, home-grown snack. Delicious!

There are two tomato seasons – the one in late summer when your plants are dripping with fruit for harvest, and the first one is now. This is the time – if you haven’t done so already – to invest in some intriguing new varieties (or old favourites), before sowing and nurturing plants to maturity.

Being sown here is the variety ‘Ildi’, which is slightly unusual – it’s a pear drop-shaped yellow type, which is compact growing and perfect for a hanging basket. As tomato plants can get large and gangly on a small patio, try tucking them away in a basket to droop temptingly in summer, while not taking up much room.

Sow now in a heated greenhouse or propagator, or indoors to put on a warm windowsill. Use moistened seed or cuttings compost levelled out in small pots. Sow thinly on the surface, keeping seed apart so seedlings don’t grow too closely to one another and ‘damp off’ or rot. Once sown, cover with a thin layer of compost and water again lightly. Keep your pots at around 20C, and you’ll see growth progress after about two weeks. Once plants have germinated keep your seedling pots nice and ventilated at a couple of degrees lower to grow on. Prick out once they have two sets of leaves into their own pots, by holding their leaves and firming into dibbed holes. Water and grow on in good light, and reduce their temperature if they get too leggy.

Here are some more excellent coloured varieties to try now - click the images to find out more…

The fragrance of sweet peas is the scent of summer and their delicate flowers among the joys of the season. A few plants will provide masses of cut flowers and bring colour to your garden so it is no wonder that sweet peas are one of our favourite flowers. They are plants for every gardener: easy to grow by anyone, but if you’re up for more of a challenge there are inventive ways to grow them well too.

Whether you want to grow flowers for the local show, have a few cut flowers for a vase inside, bring colour to your patio or mingle fragrant sweet peas to your rose garden, now is the time to start – there is still time to sow seeds or buy seedlings.

These annual climbers have been favourites in our gardens since they were introduced from their native Sicily to Northern Europe in 1699. The early sweet peas had small, unfrilled flowers but were deliciously fragrant. In the late 19th century they were developed into a wider range of colours with bigger flowers and were called Grandifloras, though the flowers are much smaller than the sweet peas we are used to seeing today. The much-loved Spencer sweet peas arose in 1900 as a sport or hybrid of the popular pink Grandiflora ‘Prima Donna’ and was named ‘Countess Spencer’. This had much larger flowers with frilly petals and from this the most of the popular varieties we grow today and all the exhibition kinds were bred.

Sweet peas are annuals and have to be grown every year from seed.

Seeds are large and easy to handle so you can sow them individually in pots so they do not need to be transplanted. They have deep roots and it is traditional to sow them in sweet pea tubes or narrow, long pots.

Sweet pea seeds have a hard seed coat that can impede water absorption and some people like to soak the seeds in water overnight before sowing. Not all varieties need this and seeds with dark seed coats tend to be the slowest to geminate. Soaking can damage the seeds so other people like to ‘chip’ the seeds either with a knife, chipping away a tiny piece of the seed coat or rub them on sandpaper to allow water to be absorbed.

The seeds do not need a high temperature to germinate and anything above 15c is sufficient.

If sowing in autumn, the seedlings must be kept cool and in bright light over winter. A cold greenhouse or coldframe is ideal as the plants will tolerate light frost but must be kept moist. The main dangers to them are mice, which will eat the seeds and seedlings, and slugs and snails.

Whether sown in spring or autumn, they can be planted out in March or April where they are to bloom. Protect them from slugs and snails. Light frost will not harm them.

Sweet peas are not fussy about soil but they prefer a well-prepared soil that has had some garden compost or well rotted manure added and they prefer a slightly alkaline soil. They will grow in most soils as long as you add organic matter and plant them in full sun.

You can also grow them in pots and containers. Use a good quality multipurpose compost or John Innes No 3 compost. Although sweet peas will tolerate a little drought they should be kept watered in dry weather or they will get mildew. In containers make sure they are given weekly liquid fertiliser to keep them growing and flowering.

It is common for the first few flower buds to drop off without opening and this will be most likely in wet, cool weather. Its nothing to worry about and later flowers usually open normally. To keep your plants blooming for longer it is important to keep cutting the flowers If seedpods form the plants quickly deteriorate and stop flowering. So keep cutting your sweet peas for the house.

Bring colour and scent to your patio with sweet peas in pots and hanging baskets too. Dwarf sweet peas are just as easy to grow as other types but need no support and although they are not as good for cutting they will help you enjoy sweet peas all around your garden and home throughout summer.

You can grow sweet peas in so many ways. Most sweet peas are climbers that will reach 2m or more if they are grown well. These can be planted to grow up wigwams of canes, sticks or hazel twigs or planted to clamber up bean netting or through other climbers over arches and fences. For the best quality flowers and the longest stems, for cutting and exhibition, you need to spend more time training them and grow individual stems up canes (cordons).

The old fashioned, grandiflora kinds have smaller flowers than the frilly Spencers and these are the best for mixing with other climbers or to grow up netting. There are also dwarf kinds that form bushy plants or ground cover and these are suitable for containers and hanging baskets.

For the best quality sweet peas it is best to grow them as cordons – single stemmed plants.

Sow the seeds in autumn and when they have about five leaves pinch out the tips of the stems. Of the sideshoots that result, remove all but the strongest. The soil should be well prepared and canes erected so they are about 40cm apart to give each plant room to grow.

Plant out the seedlings in March or early April. It is important to train the plants carefully and remove the tendrils at the ends of the leaves. This is to prevent the plants getting tangled and concentrates the plants’ efforts into making big leaves and strong flowers. As the plants grow tie them to the canes or use wire rings. This will need to be done at least once a week as the plants grow.

As the plants get older, remove sideshoots as they appear, while they’re small. Keep the flowers cut to prevent seeds from forming. When the plants reach the top of the canes they can be layered. To do this you have to untie the plants (it is easier if you have used wire rings) and lay them on the ground along the rows. Then train them up another cane so most of the length of the plant is along the ground and tie the top 30cm or so up the new cane. This allows you to get 4m of growth from the plant and extend the season of flowers.

Many growers will sow in October/November. This allows the plants to grow slowly through winter and form strong roots, which are generally considered, give the plants a head start in spring. But you can also sow them in spring. It is worth sowing them in individual, small, deep pots. If you are growing them up netting or wigwams, sow three or four seeds per pot and plant out as a clump but if you are growing them up canes as cordons then sow them in separate pots. For most purposes sowing in spring is fine but give them a chance to make good roots.

During the last weekend in January, people across the UK will be spending an hour watching and counting the birds in their garden, local park or green space. Why? To take part in the UK's biggest citizen science project - the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch.

Last year, over half a million people joined in, counting more than 9 million birds!

Bird feeders will encourage birds to visit your garden, but before you buy on, why not try a quick upcycling craft? You can make your own bird cake by mixing one part melted lard or suet into two parts birdseed and pushing into any container and then hanging up high. We think pretty floral teacups look great! You could also make your bird cake into ball shapes and push them into a metal whisk to hang in the garden.

Of course, there are lots of natural bird foods in your garden too. Greenfinches, goldfinches, blackbirds and thrushes will happily feast on rosehips left on your plants, whilst tits, siskins and sparrows will flock to the heads of sunflowers to prise off the oil-rich seed hearts.

To take part in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch (26-28th January 2024), head to their website **:a[rspb.org.uk/birdwatch]{href='https://rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/big-garden-birdwatch' }** and sign up. You'll receive a guide to help identify the most common birds your likely to see as well as useful information on how to attract birds to your garden.

Gardeners love to talk about the weather and we can probably all agree that our seasons are becoming less predictable. Recent decades have been less foreseeable for drought, rainfall (or flooding), summer heat and winter ice. Winter cold can be an instant overnight killer and now, we can’t even expect an insulating blanket of snow before the deadly chill. But some plants will take plunging winter temperatures that we never ever see in this country – unless they also have other problems to tolerate.

## How cold is cold? {#h-how-cold-is-cold}

But what exactly do we mean by cold? The Royal Horticultural Society has come up with the hardiness rating system that ranks the winter tolerance of plants on a scale of 1­7. Plants rated as H1 need heated greenhouse protection, while at the other extreme, those rated H7 are guaranteed to be winter hardy anywhere in Britain and in the coldest parts of Europe – they’ll survive temperatures of at least -20C. All the plants mentioned here are rated as H7.

But surviving winter isn’t all about the cold. Plants are more likely to struggle in winter if planted in wet or waterlogged soil, in sites shaded from winter sunshine and in situations exposed to north and east winds. Of course, in other parts of the world the winters are much more ferocious. The American hardiness rating system takes in plants that are hardy at -46C, of which I could find only one – cotton grass (eriophorum). Brrr!

So as the chill kicks in, we need to look for plants that are tough enough to handle it. All the plants I suggest in this article will survive winters of -20C or below and all have received the prestigious RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM), so are guaranteed to be fine plants that are easy to grow.

Our native wild yarrow, and most varieties of achillea derived from it, take extremes of both cold and summer drought; they may not look their best after a parched summer, but they survive. The mounds of dark green, feathery leaves are attractive before and after their summer flowering, while deadheading prolongs the season and prevents unwanted  
self-sown seedlings. ‘Heidi’ has pink flower heads fading to white, ‘Martina’ is rich yellow that pales as it matures and  
‘Summerwine’ is deep purplish red, fading harmoniously.

Bold, leathery and usually evergreen leaves make good ground cover, often turning wine or beetroot red in winter. Shortbranched clusters of red, pink or white flowers open in spring and, although they may be damaged by a surprise late frost, the fat rhizomes are far more resilient. Some varieties are hardier than others; top picks are pink-flowered ‘Eric Smith’, which is best for winter foliage colour, while ‘Eroica’ has unusually tall and long-lasting flower heads. White-flowered varieties seem less hardy but are still rated H6.

More than 100 hosta varieties have been given the RHS AGM and all are hardy down to RHS H7, the hardiest rating of all (many take -40C) so the crowns and roots really are tough. However, new spring shoots can be vulnerable to late-spring frost, although they’ll shoot again. Clear away the frosted growth and give them a liquid feed to help them recover. I’d especially recommend ‘Christmas Tree’ for variegated foliage and ‘Fragrant Bouquet’ for super-scented summer flowers.

All but one of the birch varieties that have received the RHS AGM are rated as super hardy, H7, even growing as far north as Arctic Canada and Alaska. They tend to be attractive trees that grow quickly and while they don’t have the longevity of oaks and beeches, a birch will usually outlive the gardener who plants it. Well known Himalayan birches, including ‘Grayswood Ghost’, are grown for the shining white bark, while _Betula pendula_ ‘Tristis’, the weeping birch, soon develops its characteristic elegant shape.

Junipers are well known to be super-tolerant of icy winters; some even grow wild in the Arctic. Developing into elegant spires, large and small, spreading shrubs or horizontal ground cover, the prickly foliage comes in many shades of green, grey and blue. All appreciate sun and good drainage. _Juniperus communis_ ‘Compressa’ very slowly develops into a neat column of dark growth, ideal for troughs. ‘Grey Owl’ makes an elegant, widely spreading plant in silvery grey, while _J. squamata_ ‘Blue Carpet’ becomes a low, horizontal, ground-hugging carpet in bluish grey.

:a[Download the Garden News app]{href='https://gardennews.page.link/home' } to read the full article for FREE!

You may not know if you have hedgehogs in your garden or not, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take steps to help them out just in case. As they’re coming out of hibernation now they’ll need food. Don’t put out bread and milk, it’s dog or cat food that’s best for them (the meat varieties, not fish), and this can be left out with a dish of water somewhere roaming cats can’t find it. You can also buy hedgehog food sold as kibble from garden centres.

Using less garden chemicals is better for the environment and our animal friends. Less reliance on chemical help makes for a biodiverse garden that will keep itself in check for the most part. Slug pellets and other sprays and powders can be extremely poisonous to hedgehogs.

Hedgehogs need free reign to be able to tuck themselves away on the search for insects and invertebrates to eat. If you keep some areas of grass long or leave an area of ivy and wild grasses alone and uncut they can roam happily. If your garden is planted up beautifully, with lots of different types of plants to attract lots of different insects, hedgehogs will help you keep slugs and other pests down too!

It’s the time to turn and add to heaps more readily, but before you do, always have a peek in and around your heap to check no hedgehogs have decided to use yours as a warm home. You wouldn’t want to dig your fork in and damage any of our invaluable garden friends and pest controllers, would you?

Hedgehogs like to travel a surprisingly long way – around two to three kilometres (almost two miles) – at night in search of food, shelter and eventually mates. The only way they can do this is through gaps in garden hedges and fences, which are in shorter supply these days. We can do our bit by leaving some spaces open or sawing little holes in wooden fences.

In a quiet, secluded corner of the garden, why not add a little hedgehog house? It’s the perfect shelter away from predators, pets and other hazards, and mean just-woken-up hogs can take respite safely. It’s also a great place to feed hedgehogs without other animals taking their share. Remember to clean it out every year in mid-spring. Buy one from garden centres or online. Position it with foliage and other camouflage around it.

If you find an injured or unwell hedgehog in the day time, wear gardening gloves to pick it up, holding it under its belly. Put it in a high-sided box with a tea towel as shelter.

Offer it dog or cat food and some fresh water to feed on. It may also need warmth so give it a warm (not boiling) hot water bottle.

Contact the British Hedgehog Preservation Society on 01584 890801 for advice or visit www. britishhedgehogs.org.uk.

Some people like to pack up their plots for most of autumn and winter, preferring to tidy up and wait for warmer days before giving their garden a bright makeover.

But if you think about it, that’s four or five long months before you can enjoy your garden again – far too long for us keen gardeners!

Winter gardens can be really rewarding, cosy spaces with lots of bright colours and interest, so here are some key pointers to help your plot prosper now.

There are plenty of plants with a bounty of berries in autumn, and then there are the more useful shrubs and trees that hold onto their fruit all through winter, as if they know their colour is most welcome for much longer into the year.

There are small potted shrubs for the doorstep at garden centres such as gaultheria and skimmia, giving a dash of immediate dazzle, but look a little deeper for some more permanent berrying beauties in a range of colours.

Latest on Garden News

Latest Plants

Latest Advice