Time Out for Your Garden
December is the time of year when the outside comes into the home in the form of foliage decoration and when gardeners can put their feet up, just for a few minutes.
Natural living decorations and table centrepieces are easy and eco-friendly to create, and are often something all the family has a hand in putting together. Try this for a naturally stunning centrepiece for the Christmas table. Get a good terracotta container, fill it with compost and plant winter cherry (Solanum pseudocapsicum) in the centre – a waxy leaved plant with amazing cherry tomato like berries – then place a few small poinsettias around it with some ivy.
Ivy is a really useful plant and can look stunning in the garden, even at this time of year. English ivy (Hedera helix) is a native evergreen plant, so is well-adapted to our climate and can grow virtually anywhere, in a variety of soils or sunlight levels – even in the deepest of shade. Ivy flowers in late summer, producing pollen and nectar late in the season, and its flowering clusters form small black berries, providing food for thrushes, blackbirds and blackcaps in autumn and early winter. Its dense foliage and network of stems also provide shelter for insects and small mammals, with many birds and bats nesting in mature ivy plants. It’s is a fast-growing and vigorous plant but can be kept under control by pruning back the stems with secateurs and digging up sections of ground cover ivy if it strays into areas of the garden it’s not wanted.
Another plant that can keep growing over the winter months in sage – it will survive outside as long as its roots don’t become water logged. Common sage (Salvia officianalis) is the standard culinary sage with aromatic, downy, olive-green leaves but there are numerous varieties to choose from including the widely grown purple sage with its attractive, dusky purple, year-round foliage. Sage has a robust, peppery flavour and can be used in many dishes as well as a herbal tea. It’s said to have many health benefits, and its botanical name Salvia is from the Latin salvare meaning to heal.
In addition to decorating your home with winter foliage for the festive season, top tips from the RHS for December jobs in the garden include:
- Check winter plant protection is still in place
- Insulate outdoor taps
- Protect ponds from freezing over
- Prune apple and pear trees
- Prune acers, birches and vines before Christmas
- Harvest leeks, parsnips, winter cabbage, sprouts and remaining root crops
- Trees and shrubs can still be planted or transplanted
- Take hardwood cuttings
- Keep mice away from stored produce
- Reduce watering of indoor plants
And finally …
“To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake, it is necessary to stand out in the cold.” Aristotle
