Warm up with these winter garden projects
The coldest days of winter are ahead, and although there is less to do in the garden, here are a few projects for mild, sunny days.
If you’re itching to work in the garden, plant Cineraria Senetti® because it thrives in the cold and its huge, daisy-like blooms are simply gorgeous. June plantings will flower through to spring and only stop flowering when night temperatures reach 26º C. It grows equally well in the garden or containers in full winter sun or partial sun as well as indoors in bright light.
Senetti’s colour range incudes bi-colour magenta, blue and violet blooms with bright, white centres as well single colours. Water regularly so that the soil doesn’t dry out and boost flowering with a liquid fertiliser twice a month. Plants grow up to 60 cm with a 45 cm spread, which is taller than the normal cineraria.
Good to know: Cut back by 50% after each flush of blooms to encourage another flush. Using garden scissors or secateurs, shape it by trimming off all the dead flowers and straggly growth. It should look neat and compact. Feed with a liquid fertiliser like Margaret Roberts Organic Supercharger, and water well. Keep feeding monthly to encourage healthy new growth and flowers.
Petite primroses are another cold weather flower. Botanically they are known as Primula acaulis and the ‘Danessa’ series is early flowering, very compact, and with a good colour range that includes bi-colours as well as an unusual pink with rosy eye and apricot with rosy eye.
Use them as a low growing, colourful edging in the garden in shade or semi-shade in well drained, compost enriched soil. Space plants 20cm apart. Water regularly but don’t over water because the plants don’t like wet feet.
They are just as showy as pot plants because the flowers look like a posy, carried above the dark, furry leaves. Display them in a position that receives bright, indirect light and allow the potting soil to slightly dry out before watering. For something different, plant up a mix of colours in a hanging basket for the patio.
Make a winter hanging basket for the patio. Hanging baskets are often more successful in winter than summer because they need less watering and don’t dry out as fast. Use petunias like the novelty ‘Queen of Hearts’ or petunia ‘Night Sky’, viola ‘Sorbet XP’, trailing snapdragons, or alyssum ‘Easy Breezy’ in sunny baskets and fairy Primulas and cyclamen in baskets that get good light but little or no direct sun. Keep the soil moist but not soggy and feed monthly with a liquid fertiliser.
Veggie of the month: Micro greens are the only veggies you can safely sow in winter. Use the big, black plastic seedling trays filled with a proper seedling soil mix which is weed free. Pre-fertilise by watering with Margaret Roberts Organic Supercharger so that the soil is damp. It is not necessary to fertilise again.
RAW seeds has two flavourful mixes: ‘Old Mexico’ that consists of coriander, red beets, cabbage, radish and pepper cress and ‘Rainbow blend’ with beetroot, Asian cabbage, kohlrabi, Italian broccoli and radish.
Sow seeds thickly, cover lightly with the soil mix, firm it down, and spritz with a spray bottle to dampen the soil. Cover the whole tray with plastic wrap and keep in a warm, sheltered place like a balcony, or patio. The seed should germinate within seven to 14 days. Harvest from 15 days onwards when the shoots are 5 to 10cm high. If you allow the leaves to grow bigger they can be harvested as baby leaves. Use as a garnish, salad topping, on open sandwiches and in omelette’s.
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Garden tasks for June
- Keep up the flower power of winter flowering annuals with liquid fertiliser applied every two weeks. Remove the dead flowers to encourage new flowers.
- Don’t let daffodils and other spring flowering bulbs or shrubs, like azaleas, camellias or magnolias dry out otherwise they will not flower.
- Use all your garden waste and household scraps to make compost.
- Spread the dried leaves onto the garden beds as thick mulch.
- Move herbs in pots to a sheltered, sunny area, where there are no draughts. Water them once or twice a week and supplement with a liquid fertiliser (at half strength) every second week.
- Water vegetables once a week.
