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GARDEN GROW? How does your
Anna Taylor, owner of Anna’s Flower Farm in Audley End, shares what’s going on in the garden this month
C all me rainbow ribbons around a maypole, village greens, cream teas and massive horse chestnuts with their candle-like flowers. The seasons and their natural waymarkers have historically been predictable events that steep this country in tradition. We still have snow on Christmas cards, excitedly await the first narcissus and tut at April showers. However, these weather lores have become predictable simply in their elusiveness, and none less so than the last frost dates. At the time of writing, nostalgic, but May inspires images of we haven’t had frost here in and around Cambridge since early March, mid- February and before that, a decent spell of sub-zero temperatures in January. It has been a rather mild winter, which accounts for the early blossom, wisteria display and leafing of trees. My akebia (chocolate vine)
Direct sowing is a far more efficient way to enjoy annuals: seeds are grown in their flowering position rather than trays or modules of compost. In May, the soil and air are warm enough for any hardy or half-hardy annual to germinate and grow. Clear the ground of weeds and large stones, rake to a fine tilth and draw your lines with a hoe or cane. Lines are good because all sorts will germinate at the same time, so you can see which plants to leave and which to hoe off. Water the lines and sow thinly. Plants will thank you for leaving a good 10 or 15cm between them, if not more. Then gently rake or sprinkle soil over the top and keep it damp until you see growth. Direct sowing is great for rows of plants and thrown onto damp soil in border gaps for a pop of colour. Another low-effort growing tip is to treasure self-sown seedlings; on a cool, cloudy day, ideally
BUDDING BEAUTIFUL Perennials make great cut flowers as they keep regrowing each year
MAIN IMAGE © ANNA TAYLOR PORTRAIT © CHARLOTTE GRIFFITHS
Let those seeds free from their packets , throw them around this month and enjoy what comes up
mid-May? These are questions I ask myself as we face climate change and how this affects the way we garden. I am planting more trees for shade and biodiversity (and fruit for me!), growing perennials for cut flowers, reducing the annuals I grow from seed each year – aiming to be clever with successions, orchestrating a rhythm of flowers across the plots between April and October. Annuals grown early under cover need watering, feeding, potting on and fleecing at night. Instead, I am treating annuals (and I include tulips here as a cut flower) as the greatest luxury, which is the opposite of how we once saw a packet of seeds: as an affordable way to garden.
has flowered delightfully with no frost to play party pooper, and is now dropping all the maroon, chocolate-scented flowers. Looking back at the last few years, there have been few late May frosts and I am wondering whether the expected frost dates, watched faithfully by gardeners over decades, now need to be redrawn? Every year, I stand by with fleeces and cautiously harden off half-hardys (those not hardy to the cold such as dahlias, zinnias, cosmos and coreopsis). I plan sowing schedules around giving these plants a good six weeks to grow under cover before planting them out, just as that last frost comes and goes. Do I need to change my approach? Or should we still be tentative, until at least
having watered them beforehand, lift and replant them. After growing once, panicum, nigella, calendula, atriplex and nicandra will reliably self-sow thereafter. There is no alchemy in this growing lark, beyond the magic of the natural world. Plants want to grow; I can’t help thinking we’ve overcomplicated it. Let those seeds free from their packets, throw them around this month and enjoy what comes up. Anna Taylor grows cut flowers for buckets, events and weddings on Anna’s Flower Farm, Audley End, Saffron Walden. You will also find her teaching or designing gardens and planting schemes from a studio in the centre of the plots. Follow more of her writing on her Substack, Floral Notes
82 MAY 2024 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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