Everything you need to grow...
Hot off the trowel
Gardens to Gander ​​
​Here are some local gardens to visit:​
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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​West Dean Gardens open Mon-Fri 09.30am - 5.00pm.
Sat-Sun 09.00am - 5.00pm
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The National Garden Scheme (NGS)
Look on their website and find a garden near you to visit.
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Woolbeding Gardens.
The gardens open again on Thursdays and Fridays only as from 24th April. Pre booking is required for everyone.
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Insector Clueso!
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The Asian Hornet has arrived in the UK, and hundreds of nests have been destroyed. However, it looks as though they have been the tip of the iceberg. They are avaricious insects that target most of our pollinators.
Our honey bees are at serious risk of their hives being invaded and the colonies being wiped out. These predators are smaller than the European Hornet, which is not a threat. The Asian Hornet can be identified by its yellow leg ends and a wide orange band towards the rear of its abdomen.
If you see one, please report it using the iPhone and Android ‘Asian Hornet Watch’ app. Alternatively, email: alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk
please include a photo if you can do so safely.
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Weeders Digest
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Wall & Water Gardens - Gertrude Jekyll
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When a fellow garden club member recently acquired their new property — with a delightfully walled serene lily pond garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll — it seemed like the perfect time to return to Jekyll’s own wisdom on water in the garden.
Wall & Water Gardens is a timeless classic, written by one of the greatest garden designers of the English tradition. In its pages, Jekyll shares practical yet poetic guidance on designing dry-walled terraces, rock-gardens, stream gardens, ponds and marshy water features — and crucially, on selecting the right plants for water, marsh and alpine settings.
We recommend this book to anyone who loves the elegant marriage of stone, water and planting — If you’re curious about what kinds of aquatic or moisture-loving plants to try or how to balance structure and wildness around water, Jekyll’s book is still a deeply relevant, inspiring guide.
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​https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wall-Water-Gardens-Gertrude-Jekyll/dp/0881430021​
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Top gardening jobs for December ​​​​
As we approach the shortest day of the year in December, you will need work to keep you warm outside, such as digging and tree pruning. Check your winter protection, and if you have a greenhouse, make sure the heater is working.
Hopefully, there are not too many jobs left to do this year, so you will have time for some fireside garden planning.
Top gardening jobs this month:
1. Check your winter protection structures are still in place
2. Check that greenhouse heaters are working.
3. Insulate outside taps and prevent ponds from freezing
4. Prune open-grown apples and pears (not those grown against walls)
5. Prune acers, birches and vines before Christmas to prevent bleeding
6. Harvest leeks, parsnips, winter cabbage, sprouts and remaining root crops.​
7. Trees and shrubs can still be planted and transplanted
8. Take hardwood cuttings
9. Keep mice away from stored produce
10. Reduce watering of houseplants.
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Musings
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‘Snow grew overnight on the roofs of the houses like a pure and
grandfather moss, minutely white-ivied the walls and settled on the postman opening the gate’
Dylan’s Thomas - A Child’s Christmas in Wales
‘Hark! In the air, around, above,
The Angelic Music soars and swells,
And in the garden that I love,
I hear the sound of Christmas bells’
Alfred Austin ‘A Christmas Carol’
‘When trees are hung with icy beads,
Thy red and green shine brightest, Holly:
Gayest when Nature wears her weeds,
And drapes herself in melancholy’
James Rig ‘To the Holly’
‘With garlands to grace it, with laughter to greet it,
Christmas is here, holly-red and snow-white,
Hung round with quaint legends, and old-as-life stories
Of mystical beauty and lifelong delight’
Edith Nesbit ‘Christmas’
‘How did it get so late so soon?
It’s night before it’s afternoon.
December is here before it’s June
My goodness how the time has flewn..
How did it get so late so soon?
Dr Seuss
‘Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning
but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience
can instil in us’.
Hal Borland
‘God gave us memory so that we might have
roses in December’
James M Barrie
‘Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing
but of reflection’
Winston Churchill
‘Yet my heart loves December’s smile
As much as July’s golden beam;
Then let us sit and watch the while
The blue ice curdling on the stream’
Emily Brontë
And finally.........
Christmas isn’t just a date -it’s the reason we pause, gather, and remember love
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