Late winter: the garden starts to stir
Bare branches, swelling buds and the first hellebores. This is the quiet fortnight where everything you do now shows up in November.
Late August is my favourite fortnight of the year to be in a garden, because almost nothing looks like much and almost everything is about to. The buds on the magnolia are furred and fat, the hellebores are nodding away under the deciduous shrubs, and the soil has finally stopped being a swamp.
What I’m doing this fortnight
The winter prune has to be finished now. Once the buds break on roses and fruit trees you’ve lost the window, and pruning into new growth costs the plant energy it can’t spare. If you only do one thing, do that.
The second job is far less glamorous: mulch. A generous layer now means the soil holds its moisture right through the dry weeks in February, and you’ll weed half as much all season.
A note on patience
Everyone wants to plant in spring, when the garden centres are full of colour. But if you can hold off another few weeks and plant into warm autumn soil instead, your plants will establish twice as well with a fraction of the watering. The garden rewards waiting more than it rewards enthusiasm.
Jobs for right now
- Finish the winter rose prune before the buds break
- Feed citrus and mulch around the drip line
- Lift and divide crowded perennials while they're dormant
- Sow sweet peas and broad beans
- Sharpen and oil your tools before the rush
Flowering this month
- Hellebores
- Early daffodils
- Camellia
- Winter jasmine
- Michelia