Time to assess, plan and action

After December’s bitterly cold weather, our gardens have taken a real beating and it’s inevitable that there will be some plant casualties from the cold. But the days are stretching out and spring is not far around the corner, which makes this is the perfect time for some border or even whole-garden makeovers. Winter, when the garden is pared back to its ‘bones’, is a great time to assess, plan and action some fresh new looks. 

Start by taking a good hard look both from indoors and outside. While I’m a great fan of keeping existing plants, they don’t go on forever. And if there are plants you’ve inherited with a garden and never really liked, or are in the wrong place – well, you won’t like them more as time passes! While some can be renovated with selective hard pruning, there are others – especially fast-growing shrubs like forsythia, broom, and laurel – where it’s a case of “thanks, but it’s time to go”. Do this as soon as possible, before birds start to nest.

Then comes the fun of choosing new treasures. Putting in feature plants is a superb way to give borders real pizzazz, using shapely and stunning ‘prima donnas’ to take centre stage. If there is enough cash for instant planting, putting in one budget-busting mature plant will make an immediate transformation. At the risk of stating the obvious, choose a plant to match the amount of sun or shade; the soil; and whether the site is exposed or sheltered. Feature plants should have good shapes above all, for year-round appeal, and I’m particularly fond of multi-stem trees or shrubs and standards with a clear stem to create height.

Examples are elegant Japanese maples (acers) with beautifully shaped or coloured foliage; shaggy-barked paperbark maple or birches; snowy Mespilus (Amelanchier) with spring flowers, attractive leaves, and autumn colour; and standard wisteria that drips with fragrant blooms plus handsome foliage. If you’re fortunate to have a sheltered, sunny spot where the soil drains freely, create an exotic look with the Mediterranean fan palm (Chamaerops) or even an olive tree. All of these and more can be bought as specimens in a range of sizes and prices. Or start small and wait, planting three or five small saplings in one planting hole to create a multi-stem plant.

The beauty of multi-stems and standards is that they give lots of space beneath for complementary underplanting of perennials, grasses, ground cover shrubs and bulbs: pulmonaria, hellebore, hosta, hardy ferns, brunnera and herbaceous geranium, to name just a few. Plant these in groups, drifts, or in a colour-spangled tapestry of flower and foliage colour.

Sue Fisher

Things to do in the garden

Cut and laid hedges of deciduous native plants like hawthorn and hazel make brilliant wildlife-friendly boundaries. Plant this month or next using bare rooted plants (much cheaper than pot grown, and plastic free too). Complete pruning or laying of established hedges by March, before growth starts and birds begin to nest.

Reduce weeding, improve soil, and grow healthier plants by mulching with chipped bark or shredded composted, green waste. Spread a generous 5-8cm layer on bare soil between plants.

Start growing tender plants indoors so long as there’s a warm, well-lit spot for them. Sow seed of flowers and veg such as tobacco plant, geraniums, and tomatoes. Buy and pot up tubers of frost-tender flowers like dahlias and begonias.

Deciduous ornamental grasses need cutting back in March before new growth establishes. Evergreen grasses just need a tidy-up, combing through with a rake or with fingers, to remove dead leaves and old flower stems.