The sudden arrival of freezing temperatures this month came as a shock to gardeners like me who had been enjoying a long run of mild, usable days to clean, tidy and make changes to the landscape.
Along with others I’d spoken with, I’d begun preparing plots for early plantings, such as a few advanced, experimental seedings of snow peas and some hardy greens.
On the morning of writing this, I recorded an overnight low temperature of -7 C. The sky is deep blue, the sunshine brilliant. Little birds are flitting about in the long brick planter outside my office window, pecking at seeds on a frost-flattened planting of lacy corydalis.
These imposed lulls in our gardening activities open up periods for leafing through horticultural enticements to be found in the new seed and garden catalogues, and for planning.
What is it we desire from our gardens this year? What most delights us? Is it fresh, nutritious food to nurture our family’s health, flowers to feed the soul, fragrance to lift the spirit? All can be had from both open and container gardens.
As I plan for vegetable-plot and flower-bed plantings, I keep thinking of the reported 15 per cent rise in fresh vegetable prices in December. That can be explained partly by the season, but an overall price increase of six per cent for fresh vegetables is predicted this year.
Rising produce prices will be a concern for many families, who might now consider making a list of their favourite vegetables, with plans for growing at least some of them. A garden space is good, but not essential. Salad vegetables and many others do well in containers. My friend Caron’s potted carrots on her deck supplied her with fresh roots through January.
Notes from readers. Pat has written about a display of spring bulb flowers that an unplanned “pruning” made exceptionally attractive.
“I have a flower bed with grape hyacinths in it. The deer have eaten the tops off to about five centimetres. I thought last year, when they did the same thing, that there would be no bloom, but I had a lovely display of blue flowers because most of the green around them had been nibbled away before the flowering stage.”
Pat’s note brought to mind plants that should be cut back now to enhance the display of flowers to come. Notable among these is epimedium, a carpeting perennial with beautiful foliage that lasts through the winter. The problem is that the early spring flowers are at least partly hidden by the mass of leaves. Cutting the old leaf stems down to the ground in February allows for full enjoyment of the dainty little columbine-like flowers.
Epimedium (barrenwort, bishop’s hat) is one of the few perennials that endure in dry shade, even where there is competition for moisture and nutrients from tree roots. Bigroot geranium (Geranium macrorrhyzum) is another.
Pruner springs. Vivian has written with a solution to a common problem with secateurs (hand pruners). “A while ago, you wrote about your favourite Felco pruners. I also have a favourite, an old pair of Fiskars. I was devastated with the spring broke.
“I couldn’t find a replacement at any store that sells pruners until I tried Capital Iron in Victoria. In their garden department, they had only the type of coil with flat metal (used in Felco pruners), but in their hardware department, they had several sizes of the coiled round wire type that my pruners use. I was delighted that there was a size that fit my pruners.”
Coil springs between the handles of secateurs sometimes drop off, and can be lost, and as with Vivian’s, they can break. It’s good to know that replacements can be found locally. Where they are not, pruner parts can be found on the internet. Lee Valley Tools has the flat metal style of coil springs to fit various sizes of Felco pruners.
Garden Events
Pruning workshop. The Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, 505 Quayle Rd. in Saanich, is offering a workshop on Pruning Ornamental Plants on Monday and Wednesday, Feb. 25 and 27, 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. and on Saturday, March 2, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Pacific Horticultural College instructor Patty Brown will take participants through the theory and techniques of pruning during two lectures and one hands-on session for practising what has been learned. Cost to HCP members $95, others $115. To register, call 250-479-6162. hcp.ca
