Jamie’s Little Allotment: Gayton-based gardener Jamie Marsh discusses cutting back plants in ornamental beds during ‘fool’s spring’
In his weekly column, Gayton gardener Jamie Marsh explains the concept of ‘fool’s spring’ and cutting back plants in his ornamental beds …
I don’t know about you, but I think if the rest of the spring and summer were like it was today, I’d be a happy man.
A T-shirt and shorts with the temperature on the car showing 18 degrees at one point would be perfect for me, but unfortunately, I think it’s going to change very soon.
While we’ve been enjoying this beautiful weather, I just want to remind you about a little thing called ‘fool’s spring’.
Fool’s spring is when warm weather precedes another cold snap before spring properly gets under way.
For the majority of people, fool’s spring just means several days of nice weather, but for us gardeners, it can be a very tempting time to start planting our young tender plants out, but obviously we can’t because they will die, so all we need to remember is, our average last frost date here in Norfolk can be well into May, so just hold tight on the planting out.
What fool’s spring has allowed me to do is, clear and cut back all last year’s plants in my ornamental beds in the beautiful sunshine.
As things come to an end in autumn and winter, instead of chopping the stems down and ripping all the seed heads out, I just leave the beds exactly how they are, for a couple of reasons.
The seed heads from last year’s annuals and perennials not only drop on the soil to self-seed to give you free plants again this year, but also provide lots of birds with much-needed nutrition throughout the winter, and likewise leaving all the dead dried stalks and stems giving so many insects cosy places to live when it’s really cold and wet, I also think the dried stems and seed heads look so much better than just bare soil through the long winter season.
There is a point where your beds will have to be cleared back ready for this year’s new growth to start to burst through, and that time is about now.
Most of last year’s growth will break off extremely easily. So I start by removing any of these, then I will leave them in a pile next to the compost heap for several more weeks - so any still snoozing mini beasts can wake up and move out - then I will snap them all into smaller pieces and pop them in the compost heap, they are great browns or carbons.
Once these are all removed, you can get to clearing the ground properly, for me this is time to get on my hands and knees with gloves on because I get some nasty little brambles growing across the top of the soil.
With hardy pernicious weeds like brambles, you're going to struggle to eradicate them completely unless you use lots of chemicals.
I don’t use any chemicals in either the allotment or garden, so the only thing I can do is follow the plant until I reach where it’s growing from and try and dig it out, it will grow back, but the more times you try and dig it out the weaker it will become.
Once my beds were clear, it was time to do some hydrangea pruning.
I find it easier to prune them while still on my hands and knees, so I can really see closely what’s happening.
You will notice there will be old dead stems, which will snap really easily, clear these first right at the base of the plant, then check all the other stems for buds which will be bulging by now. Quite possibly there might be some stems with none, or very tiny buds on, take some of these right back close to the crown and snip them off just above a pair of buds. You will also notice some stems will have some big healthy buds on them, again prune last year’s flowers off just above a pair of buds, this is going to let lots of airflow in the centre of the plant, so fingers crossed it will flourish.
The last thing to do to the now clear beds is give them a good mulch, to get some much-needed nutrients put back into the ground and improve the structure of the soil. There are many things you can use for mulching at this time of year, but I think a good homemade compost or, if you don’t make your own compost, a shop-bought peat-free multi-purpose compost will be best to give the beds what they need.
Just add a few centimetres all over the beds, and in and around the existing plants, feeding everything for the up-and-coming growing season.
Email me at jamieslittleallotment@gmail.com and let me know what you’re up to in the garden, and I’ll give you a shout out, also you can follow me on Instagram @jamies_little_allotment to see what else I’m up to in the garden.
