Great Chishill

As I write this the first signs of Spring are beginning to thrust forward. The hens are laying and the aconites and crocuses are noticeable as a contrast to the dazzling white landscape that we have all become familiar with this Winter.
It is a daily task to fill the bird feeders and they are teeming with goldfinches, tits (great, blue and long-tailed), woodpeckers, robins (usually three at a time and I thought they were territorial!), not to mention magpies dangling precariously and making the feeders sway in a most alarming way, with pheasants, dunnocks, blackbirds and our hens scooping up the flotsam.
Now the snow has finally melted everything is looking a bit sorry for itself. It probably doesn’t help having five free rangers scratching around, however, enjoy the first warmer days and prepare for a good tidy up as the growing season approaches. It is gratifying to take a few hours to cut back old perennials, remove the blackened, fallen leaves that seem to appear even when you have raked every last one up, and catch sight of the earth in readiness for the growing frenzy to come. Even a low maintenance garden requires some maintenance.

It’s time to clean and sharpen up those secateurs, saws and loppers and get pruning!
Perennials are generally straightforward – simply cut back and remove all the dead vegetation back down to ground level. Pinks (dianthus) simply require a light shearing to remove old leaves and encourage the plants to bush out.

Shrubs are a little more tricky and this is when it does pay to find out which shrubs you have in your garden. Yellow winter-flowering jasmine has been battered by the extreme weather this year and will readily accept cutting back the unruly growth with shears to keep it tidy. Forsythia requires pruning as soon as it has finished flowering to enable the wood to ripen sufficiently for next years flowers. Leave it too late and you will lose their potential for a good display in 2011. This also applies to other shrubs and climbers such as summer-flowering honeysuckles and tree peonies too. It is a good idea to annually take out about 1/3rd of the oldest stems down to the base. This encourages new growth to shoot from the bottom, thus perpetuating the life of the plant. Leave pruning tender penstemons a little longer until the warmer days are really here and then be gentle with them, removing the minimum to keep a good shape and remove tired growth. Lavender is best sheared back in the autumn and is a short lived shrub, however, its’ life can be prolonged by pruning well. It is well known that lavender rarely regenerates if it is cut back into the woody stems, however the annual prune should remove almost all of that years’ growth to stimulate thick and healthy growth avoiding that awful leggy look of neglected plants.
Buddliea should be cut back now to about 2-3’ from the ground. At The Perfumed Garden, we often prune buddleia in the autumn in exposed sites as the branches can tend to split off the stems if they become loaded with snow.

Hydrangeas need each stem cut back to a healthy bud but again, if they are becoming congested it is good to remove older stems. The ‘healthy bud’ rule also applies to the climbing hydrangea (hydrangea petiolaris) and summer flowering clematis too.

As for the roses, the same basic rules of pruning stands, that being remove any dead, diseased or damaged stems and also ones that cross each other. If they rub together, it can become a source of potential trouble that can introduce infections or viruses like an open wound. Roses are tough as old boots and it really is extremely difficult to kill one unless it is unhealthy in the first instance. They will tolerate a hard renovating prune and usually bounce back with even more vigour. Climbing roses are traditionally pruned in September or October and I think this is because inclement weather could damage them through the winter with their full growth. Shrub roses are usually left until February/March and when you prune, aim to create an open bowl shape enabling plenty of air to circulate around the inside of the bush. Prune each stem back to an outward facing bud to keep the ‘open bowl’ shape – the outward facing buds (not surprisingly) grow outwards, keeping the inside of the shrub opened up for fewer bugs to linger.
Each pruning cut should be cleanly made at a slight angle to allow rain water to run off and not sit on the top of the stem and cause rotting.

Now all we need is a few sunny days to tempt us outside and make a start!

Great & Little Chishill
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The Gardening Page - March 2010 by Jill Foxley Can you help? I am making a collection of ‘old wives tales’ and ‘tips and wrinkles’ to do with country living and gardening and would be very grateful for your contributions and I’d like to test some out. Does growing French marigolds with salad crops really reduce greenhouse pests? Are broad beans sown in the autumn less likely to succumb to blackfly? Will a red sky at night always mean shepherd’s delight? I would love to hear them all!	As I write this the first signs of Spring are beginning to thrust forward. The hens are laying and the aconites and crocuses are noticeable as a contrast to the dazzling white landscape that we have all become familiar with this Winter. It is a daily task to fill the bird feeders and they are teeming with goldfinches, tits (great, blue and long-tailed), woodpeckers, robins (usually three at a time and I thought they were territorial!), not to mention magpies dangling precariously and making the feeders sway in a most alarming way, with pheasants, dunnocks, blackbirds and our hens scooping up the flotsam. Now the snow has finally melted everything is looking a bit sorry for itself. It probably doesn’t help having five free rangers scratching around, however, enjoy the first warmer days and prepare for a good tidy up as the growing season approaches. It is gratifying to take a few hours to cut back old perennials, remove the blackened, fallen leaves that seem to appear even when you have raked every last one up, and catch sight of the earth in readiness for the growing frenzy to come. Even a low maintenance garden requires some maintenance. It’s time to clean and sharpen up those secateurs, saws and loppers and get pruning! Perennials are generally straightforward – simply cut back and remove all the dead vegetation back down to ground level. Pinks (dianthus) simply require a light shearing to remove old leaves and encourage the plants to bush out. Shrubs are a little more tricky and this is when it does pay to find out which shrubs you have in your garden. Yellow winter-flowering jasmine has been battered by the extreme weather this year and will readily accept cutting back the unruly growth with shears to keep it tidy. Forsythia requires pruning as soon as it has finished flowering to enable the wood to ripen sufficiently for next years flowers. Leave it too late and you will lose their potential for a good display in 2011. This also applies to other shrubs and climbers such as summer-flowering honeysuckles and tree peonies too. It is a good idea to annually take out about 1/3rd of the oldest stems down to the base. This encourages new growth to shoot from the bottom, thus perpetuating the life of the plant. Leave pruning tender penstemons a little longer until the warmer days are really here and then be gentle with them, removing the minimum to keep a good shape and remove tired growth. Lavender is best sheared back in the autumn and is a short lived shrub, however, its’ life can be prolonged by pruning well. It is well known that lavender rarely regenerates if it is cut back into the woody stems, however the annual prune should remove almost all of that years’ growth to stimulate thick and healthy growth avoiding that awful leggy look of neglected plants. Buddliea should be cut back now to about 2-3’ from the ground. At The Perfumed Garden, we often prune buddleia in the autumn in exposed sites as the branches can tend to split off the stems if they become loaded with snow. Hydrangeas need each stem cut back to a healthy bud but again, if they are becoming congested it is good to remove older stems. The ‘healthy bud’ rule also applies to the climbing hydrangea (hydrangea petiolaris) and summer flowering clematis too. As for the roses, the same basic rules of pruning stands, that being remove any dead, diseased or damaged stems and also ones that cross each other. If they rub together, it can become a source of potential trouble that can introduce infections or viruses like an open wound. Roses are tough as old boots and it really is extremely difficult to kill one unless it is unhealthy in the first instance. They will tolerate a hard renovating prune and usually bounce back with even more vigour. Climbing roses are traditionally pruned in September or October and I think this is because inclement weather could damage them through the winter with their full growth. Shrub roses are usually left until February/March and when you prune, aim to create an open bowl shape enabling plenty of air to circulate around the inside of the bush. Prune each stem back to an outward facing bud to keep the ‘open bowl’ shape – the outward facing buds (not surprisingly) grow outwards, keeping the inside of the shrub opened up for fewer bugs to linger. Each pruning cut should be cleanly made at a slight angle to allow rain water to run off and not sit on the top of the stem and cause rotting. Now all we need is a few sunny days to tempt us outside and make a start!

Great & Little Chishill