Gardening.ie

WARMING WINTER JOBS•


Here are a few I was doing this week

Buy pots of small, early-flowering bulbs such as winter aconite, snowdrops and hardy little Cyclamen. Plant these around the base of winter-flowering shrubs for added colour.

• Winter-hardy primroses are effective planted beside a path, in front of your seat or in a trough near the house to bloom through to spring.

• Plant up one or more patio containers, using small upright conifers, variegated trailing ivies, small skimmia and winter-flowering heathers for a long-term effect, with pots of small bulbs popped in between which can be exchanged with more pots of bulbs as their flowers fade.
• Have a good look at stakes and supports for climbing plants to check if any need replacing.

any more suggestions?

byee

LIFT AND DIVIDE PERENNIALS
When the leaves have been blackened by frost, dahlia tubers should be dug up. Cut off the stems at 2-3in above the tuber, remove all the loose soil, dry them in an airy place, dust with flowers of sulphur, and label and store in a cool dark place. The easiest way to apply sulphur is to shake the tubers in a plastic bag with handful of flowers of sulphur. Large old clumps of tubers are better divided next spring, when you plant them out again. Division now only makes wounds for mould to enter.

This is the perfect time to lift and divide herbaceous perennials. Replenish the soil with well-rotted compost (and with plenty of coarse grit if the soil is heavy clay). Divide large clumps with a fork or spade and replant the strongest, outer pieces and water well. Also it is a good time to buy and put in new plants. The garden centres are brimming with new specimens at this time of year

Take hardwood cuttings of fruit bushes. Most will take if you cut a twig about a foot long from mature wood. Plant in the garden by making a slit with the spade and simply leave until next summer. Dig up and transplant into the final position where it is to grow.

pruning shrubs and trees will keep you going

January is a great month to prune most deciduous trees and shrubs. Fruit, flowering and shade trees can be pruned at this time. Do not prune spring flowering plants, like quince, forsythia or Spirea, etc. as you would be removing their spring flowers. If needed, these plants can be pruned when the plants have finished flowering

with the weather we have been having today it's nearly time to get the mower out!!

Is it just me. Did grass ever used to stop growing. It doesn't now,it gets longer every day over winter!