Sorted for spring

There were a few jobs niggling at the back of my mind, so it was good to go outside to get them sorted.

February, which arrives tomorrow, may still bring more coldness – it can be the worst month of the year for chilly and generally horrid weather – but the month can also bless us with wonderfully warm periods. It was with these thoughts in mind that I began the spring sort-out.

Last spring, I planted up a small bed near the house with rhubarb and a gooseberry bush. They both did all right. I wasn’t expecting great results in the first year, but somehow neither plant seemed really to thrive.

The rhubarb was tasteless and the gooseberry became thin and leggy after an initial burst of growth and flowering. On reflection, it was decided that they had been planted in haste in a new bed with poor soil where there was only a little early afternoon sun. And the cloudy summer didn’t help.

Only a prostrate Hebe has coped with the bed and had produced a neat low growing mound of small, glossy dark leaves. So the Hebe has been left in situ, as it is obviously happy, but the gooseberry and rhubarb have been lifted and moved to a sunnier spot with better-drained soil.

They may not crop very well again this year, as sometimes a move can set plants back a year, but they should do better in their new home.

The gaps left with the move- round have been filled with ground-covering semi-evergreen Ajuga, and viburnum and hydrangea shrubs.

Ajuga is an old-fashioned but popular plant for ground cover; I especially like the dark-leafed varieties with lovely lilac blue late spring flowers. It will spread happily once established and in many places is able to keep hold of its leaves all year, making it invaluable for providing cover in winter.

Severe cold may kill the foliage off but a new crop will quickly grow once the weather improves.

The viburnum may prove to be too big for its spot in this small bed, but the attractive flowers the shrub carries in late winter and spring swayed me.

It can grow up to three metres tall with a similar spread, but I am hoping careful pruning will keep it a little smaller and not affect the flowers.

This will need to be done in May as flowers are produced on growth made the previous year. Early pruning allows plenty of summer growth for the following year’s blooms.

The hydrangea has been kept in a pot since it was bought a few years ago. It is a paniculata, which has stayed quite small in its containment, so it will be interesting to see if new freedom out in the garden will see an increase in its size.

Compared with the dense growth of the viburnum, the hydrangea is more delicate, although it can still reach a similar height, if allowed.

In August and September, large white cone-shaped flowers are carried on the ends of each arching stem.

Foliage and flowers are suffused with autumn colour as the year turns until finally the leaves drop and the blooms turn to caramel, sticking to their branches until they are cut back in spring.

Hydrangea grandiflora can be cut back hard in spring to just above a new bud towards the base of the plant. For the moment the old stems and buds are best left as protection against any frost we are yet to have.

Garden dangers...

A REMINDER that sometimes a garden can bite back… In my enthusiasm to get clipping and cutting last weekend, it slipped my mind that some plants have their own protection against secateurs.

Euphorbias are known for their scalding sap that leaks from any snipped stems and the juicy, low-growing Euphorbia rigida is no exception.

As I cut the plant back to the neat new shoots scattered about its base, a spray of milky liquid shot up to my face covering my chin. It was wiped away but the next day a neat line of tiny blisters had travelled from the tip of my nose up to my forehead.

To add to my woes, an itchy rash dotted my inner arm, an allergic reaction to either an achillea or feverfew that had got the late winter chop. Knowing I am sensitive to this family of plants, I had covered up but they still managed to make their irritating mark.

Gardening TV and radio

Tomorrow.

8am, BBC Radio Humberside, Gardening Phone-in. With Blair Jacobs and Doug Stewart. Telephone number 01482 225 959.

9am, BBC Radio Leeds, Gardening. Presented by Tim Crowther and Joe Maiden.

2pm, BBC Radio 4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Bunny Guinness, Pippa Greenwood, John Cushnie and chairman Eric Robson help gardeners from North Yorkshire. (Repeated from last Friday).

Friday.

3pm, BBC Radio 4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Chris Beardshaw, John Cushnie, Anne Swithinbank and chairman Eric Robson answer gardening queries.

Saturday, February 7.

7am, BBC Radio York, Plant Surgery. Presented by Julia Booth with garden expert Nigel Harrison.