When It’s Wet To Stay Off The Ground
THE VILLAGE GARDENER
When It’s Wet To Stay Off The Ground
We are advised when it’s wet to stay off the ground. It causes a lot of damage if the soil gets compacted. This causes problems with drainage and restricted plant growth and includes the grass. There is still plenty to be getting on with, starting with trying to make room in the shed. This is for the stuff we are going to throw out from the house in spring but can’t bear to take to the tip. It’s the same ritual every year.
It has been such a strange year with a dry summer and a warm autumn. This has meant we have bedding plants still flowering in November. Pelargoniums are sometimes discarded but an old method of storing them is cut them back, pull up and shake off the soil, dry them out and store root ball pointing up and wrapped in newspaper. Ieuan uses the Guardian newspaper for his, but I’m quite sure the Telegraph would suffice as long as you don’t mind the plants leaning to the right when you replant them next spring. When the rain eventually came it seemed to bring all the insects, that had been waiting in the soil, to life. With not as much to eat in Autumn, they even started eating geraniums which are usually left unscathed. A lot of gardeners were bitten as well. A noticeable absentee from the late summer was the wasp, very few around.
Another piece of advice handed out at this time of year is to up the feeding of our feathered friends. They say it will encourage them to feed on the pests in the garden. I can’t say I’ve seen those little darlings ignore an easy meal to go hunting for the odd insect. What it does encourage is the larger pests (mice and rats) if we don’t keep the area cleaned regularly. If you’re putting apples out for the blackbirds, you will need to quarter them as they won’t peck through the skin. If you leave them whole, you are just inviting Pam Williams to recover them for her apple distribution network. Open feeders will bring in the sparrow hawk, it works like a McDonald’s drive through for these small raptors.
Working in and around the village throughout the year it’s an absolute pleasure to see the way the gardens are kept. I have to mention Mr& Mrs Cottle who always keep theirs in lovely order.
I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas. Take care and happy gardening.