I was chatting to a friend at the community garden yesterday as we collected leaves and pruned the willows about the beauty of oca with its lush trailing leaves and jewel-like edible tubers. To my mind, harvesting these colourful tubers is one of the most joyful moments in the winter garden, along with watching the … Continue reading Creating A Winter Garden (Part 3)
Last weekend, the first part of Creating a Winter Garden considered structure and flowers. Thanks to everyone who shared images of their winter gardens: precious moments that lift our spirits on these short winter days. Stems and Bark The scarcity of winter flowers means that a wall liberally covered in clematis 'Freckles' is a precious sight, … Continue reading Creating A Winter Garden (Part 2)
The speckled flowers of Clematis cirrhosa ‘Freckles’ and its creamy white counterpart ‘Jingle Bells’ are twining along the bare apple espaliers with some intrepid stems nearly reaching the ground. I planted the clematis by the post closest to the dining room window so that we could see it from the table and judging by the … Continue reading Creating A Winter Garden (Part 1)