Winter Update from the Gardens 2025
By Andrew Humphris, Head Gardener
We often get asked in the garden ‘ What do you do in winter? ‘ well, the answer is that it is as busy as any other time of year. Unless we do all of the winter preparation, we would always be fighting a losing battle come the spring.
The autumn and winter, so far, up until Christmas has been incredibly mild and we already have daffodils and Camassia’s emerging and those lovely catkins on the hazels are in flower already too. The mild weather has meant that the mowing has gone on for much longer than normal, well into November and still growing.
We completed all of our bulb planting in November which should give a great display in the spring. Our cut flower tulips this year have gone into the beds around the dying man lawn, nearly 4,000 of them.
We removed all of the white rugosa roses from this area as it is heavily infested with bindweed. This is our very last bed that we will empty to control bindweed.
We have also lifted all of our Dahlias and tender plants and have them in store.
Our focus before Christmas is to try and get the last of the hedges finished, prune all of the climbing roses and mulch the vegetable garden.
After Christmas the long process of cutting down and weeding all the borders takes place. This will take 2 to 3 months to get all the beds done.
We also take this opportunity to adjust any planting and review the beds as a whole. The shrub roses will all get pruned along with all of the apple trees and the thinning of the espalier apples.
The cutting of the Hazel bean poles and pea sticks takes place in January also. This provides all of our supports throughout the garden.
After being fallow for two years the new white rugosa roses will be planted around the sundial garden after the area has been dug to make sure it is clear of bindweed.
February / March time we will repot and clean up all of the plants in the display house ready for Easter opening.
The exciting job of seed sowing will start around then too. Watching the germination of seeds is always fascinating, The vegetables, annuals and perennials to fill the garden with colour and scent is always a sign that spring is around the corner.
