Let's talk about the weather

As a gardener, the weather controls you. At this time of the year, many would be concerned about the cold, but for me, the real hard weather is the rain. Whilst our plants need the rain, it is nearly impossible to get any work done in the garden. And in addition, no waterproof is truly waterproof. The boots get wet and you start to long for the summer days when you can be outside in the garden for hours on end, the wildlife comes out and you end up adding water to the garden.

It seems in recent years the winters have been warmer but also wetter. I remember we always used to get snow at some point over the winter, but now we seem to escape it, or if it does snow, its not proper snow. Not the snow that you can build a snowman out of. The problem is, these warmer winters can confuse our plants. Recently we have seen spring bulbs and tender perennials that try to start to grow too early and then damaged by frosts and drops in temperatures below freezing. There's also the issue of fungi, a cause for diseases which also thrives in mild winters.

There's always an upside to the mild winters though. Fruit tree buds are less hardy so a mild winter will allow more flowering and later more fruit. The same applies to our flowering landscape shrubs. Forsythia will bloom from the ground to the tips when winters are mild.

Therefore, as we venture into 2017, I'm looking forward to beautiful flower displays and plenty of fruit!