GARDENS
ANNA TAYLOR, OWNER OF ANNA’S FLOWER FARM IN AUDLEY END, SHARES WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE GARDEN THIS MONTH
ovember arrives with almost a sigh of relief; a little pause for thought and reflection. By now, we’ve almost certainly had a
frost to call time on the perennial borders, blackening our beloved dahlias and the leaves that, released from the branches, have twirled to the now soggy ground. The pace slows. We can relax a little after a busy spring and summer: most seeds won’t germinate in November. The ground is heavy with moisture. Any footfall on the grass or borders compacts the soil so, in effect, most tasks pause until there’s a dry spell, or winter arrives fully, bringing different jobs altogether. Our main tasks this month are to lift dahlias and plant tulips. Both plants enjoy a deep, rich soil and neither disturbs the other’s growth. It’s best to lift dahlias once there have been a couple of frosts to blacken the foilage and kill off any viruses. The same goes for planting tulips – better to wait for a few frosts before planting. As such, these jobs go hand in hand. Sarah Raven, a gardening writer and TV presenter from our area, leaves her dahlias in the ground and only splits them every few years. It makes sense to plant tulips around the plants, for instance, in April and May, before the dahlia foliage begins to peek out and cover the ground from June until late October. I lift our dahlias for several reasons. The plants work hard to repeat flower throughout the cutting season. This depletes the soil of nutrients and tires the plant. By lifting and splitting each year, there’s an opportunity to mulch and discourage virus build-up in the soil. Plants are rotated and grown in different beds on a programme over a few years. I plant tulips shoulder to shoulder, akin
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to eggs in an egg box, so they really only need a small space in a sunny spot. But admittedly, the main reason that I rotate the plants is because I enjoy seeing the garden used in different ways, with a change of location each year. On a fine day, turning the compost heap is a warming and satisfying job. Doing so will reactivate decomposition, and thus speed up the process. Raking leaves off the lawn and adding them to the heap or, more ideally, storing them to rot into leaf mould in their own bin, makes beautiful crumbly compost for your shady borders within a year. Beech is by far the best and most valuable leaf for this. Be sure to leave a few piles of leaves about for toads, hedgehogs and insects
– we can get too tidy. The same can be said of the border. I’ll cut down any rotting foilage or stems (because it can sit on top of the plant and rot that, too), but I’ll leave standing stems and seed heads for the wildlife, not to mention frosty cobweb silhouettes as we go deeper into winter. By rooting myself in the month I’m in, I feel a greater appreciation for where I am at this very moment. Tasks completed at the appropriate time – seed sowing, composting and mulching – ensure I’m aligned with the season. That’s why I believe gardening is such a healing and deeply comforting activity. So, I’ll enjoy the wood smoke, fallen leaves and damp air, and I’ll breathe it all in, while I go about my tasks.
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