December is a month when the garden often takes a back seat, and when Pat deserves a break from helping you all with your garden jobs, so the CABAHS Committee have come up with a list of 10 Things that they are doing this month in, from, or for their gardens.
1. Plant out Dahlias in a sunny spot in fertile soil adding some compost to the planting hole. I have to surround mine with Strulch on my allotment to protect them from the hundreds of slugs and snails lurking all around.
2. Take softwood cuttings now of Anthemis, Salvia, Verbena, Penstemon and Fuchsia. Cut below a leaf node and dibble around the edge of a pot. Salvias will also grow fine roots in water to give them a head start.
3. Look out for hellebore seedlings around the base of your favourite plant. The resulting plants may not resemble the parent but they could be even better.
We hope you enjoy a spring walk around the walled gardens at Charlton House! Look out for:
A fragrant, small and early-flowering daffodil, you can spot Narcissis ‘Elke’ in the Peace Garden. It has pale petals and a creamy yellow trumpet. The name ‘Elka’ is apparently from a combination of the names of two ‘lady daffodil growers’: Elizabeth and Kate.
Wood spurge is in the Euphorbia family, so take care! If the stems are broken, they gush with a thick milky latex substance that can cause blisters on skin. They are handsome perennial plants, shade loving, with zingy lime-green flowers in late Spring and rosettes of glossy dark green leaves. Another name for this plant is ‘Mrs Robb’s Bonnet’ – we would like to see the hat that inspired that name!
Continue reading What to look out for in the Old Pond Garden: March 20251. Prune Wisteria this month and next by taking all side shoots back to 2 or 3 buds. Very old plants may need severe pruning to show off the flowers.
2. Start pruning roses in earnest although some are still unbelievably flowering. Remove any foliage with blackspot and don’t compost. Old roses respond well to hard pruning so don’t be afraid, removing all dead and dying wood and cutting stems back to above a bud.
3. I had to remove dead Clematis shoots from a Daphne Jacqueline Postill and in doing so pulled off some of the flowers so take care and do it soon if you can. But leave the main prune until next month.
Continue reading Pat’s Jobs for January 2025To be honest it has been so wet and now so cold that the ground is frozen but if conditions return to normal maybe you can try some of the following…..we live in hope!
1. Today according to the RHS is National Houseplant Appreciation Day so try giving those houseplants some attention and if they’re not looking good, treat yourself to a new one checking you have the right conditions for it.
2. Remove old hellebore leaves right back to the base to show off their flowers and to stop any leaf spot or other diseases from spreading.
3. All my violas in my front window box have died and a good gardening friend reminded me it could be vine weevil larvae chewing the roots which I haven’t had for ages so turn out the window box and check for those grubs and replace with fresh compost.
4. Start pruning roses cutting back with a slanting cut to above a bud and use the resulting prunings for cuttings 6 to 12 inches long and insert into either a pot or the ground so that 2/3 of the cutting are below the soil. They take a good while to root but its worth the free plants if they root.
5. Winter prune wisteria by cutting back shoots to 3 or 4 buds from the main stem.
6. Cut back really tatty herbaceous plants but leave anything with hollow stems or stems and foliage that may harbour overwintering insects. I started cutting back a bay tree until I saw the ladybirds amongst the stems.
7. Seed potatoes can be chitted from now on by placing them so they don’t touch in boxes, egg cartons are ideal, and placing in a light frost free place. Don’t forget to label the variety.
8. Prune established soft fruit bushes such as gooseberries, red and white currants removing any dead wood and cutting back main shoots by a quarter. If grown as a bush aim for a goblet shape with an open centre to aid air circulation.
9. Look at your seed catalogues and order anything you especially want before they run out.
10. Make sure to have some scented flowering shrubs either in the garden or in pots for pollinators to include winter honeysuckle, sarcococca, daphne and viburnham and aim to plant some by your door so you can catch the scent.
Happy gardening all!
Pat K
Ed: The RHS has a shop at Bluewater, perfect for browsing for some houseplant updates, all UK grown. (Note they don’t take National Garden Vouchers though)
9 March
So nice to see volunteers back in the garden. A great weeding and planting session.
16 March
The potting-up team
The Long Borders Party
We even had a canine volunteer today, being good as gold (no squirrels around luckily!)
18 March
The Rockery Ladies.. Making a good start on the Rockery weeding, might need a bigger fork next time!
What a turn out for the Long Border. We had peak volunteer numbers, on a rather wet and nasty day. Thank you so much to everyone who came along, hope you come back (and please bring nicer weather!)
The start of a bird bath in the central bed! Thank you to the chain gang..
4 January
While taking down the Christmas wreaths, we spotted all these in flower in the garden. The Sarcoccca (sweet box, bottom left corner) smells wonderful.
19 January
Doing a weekly check in, here is the most beautiful Lenten rose, Helleborus orientalis, in the Sensory Garden. Not a rose at all, it is a member of the buttercup family.
26 January
Another check in visit, snow still lying on the ground today, there are surprising frost pockets in this garden, although it is all clear by the walls.
Foxy footprints giving away the culprit! Our teasels have all been teased to bits, we wish Mr Fox would just go back to chewing the plant labels..
Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society 