By mid-November, Longmeadow is starting to dissolve into a brown and green blur. Mud makes all grass slippery and treacherous, and rain turns the paths to ice rinks. We long for cold, bright days as much for the dryness they bring as the rare glimpse of sun. But we don’t stop gardening and the garden doesn’t stop offering the occasional delight, albeit in rarer glimpses.
The Grass Borders can still look magnificent as they fade and any green structure comes into its own (albeit much less now that box blight has drastically reduced our evergreen hedges). It all needs a lift, however, to cheer on the spirits in what is, for me at least, the dankest, darkest time of year.
The best way to do this is with some judiciously placed containers planted specifically for winter display. I confess that the options are limited, but it can – and should – be done. Then, as we enter the new year, a much wider range of potted options are on offer as the first bulbs begin to appear and February can be gloriously illuminated by the jewel-like intensity of bulbs that can be planted now, such as irises, daffodils, hyacinths, scillas, muscari and, of course, tulips, which will follow on in April.
But first let’s deal with the calamity that is the six weeks leading to Christmas. Not much can salvage this drear time beyond, as I do, burying yourself in work and walking briskly every day. But one or two winter pots do help brighten the load.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 2021-Ausgabe von Gardeners World.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 2021-Ausgabe von Gardeners World.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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July is an island floating between the joy of June and the slightly fatigued month of August. It's a grown-up month: the year has shrugged off its adolescent exuberances, the weather is (hopefully) warm enough for ice cream to be one of your five a day, the sea should be swimmable without (too much) danger of hypothermia and thoughts will be of holiday shenanigans and family barbecues. School's out this month, the next tranche of glorious summer colour is washing across our borders and it's my birthday. Lots of reasons to give three rousing cheers for July!
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