December 2007 - Choosing Seeds

After it gets dark in the evening, I have taken to studying seed catalogues for hours on end. It is the best way to get the garden started on both economic and ecological grounds. Of course, I will have to buy quite a few shrubs and trees to form the backbone of the herbaceous border, but many perennials and certainly most annuals, can easily be grown from seed. Eventually though, I only order about a dozen different perennial seeds and just a handful of annual flowers and herbs as well as some easily grown vegetables, such as rocket, for the following spring. Quite simply, neither the borders nor the vegetable garden will be ready by early next summer.
I also did a lot of clearing this month: cutting back trees, shrubs and sawing wood. It is easier to see the basic structure of the garden when there are no leaves on the trees and everything is just bare bones. Sometimes one has to be ruthless: I took out a white elder entirely, as a well as a variegated holly and a lovely silver birch in order to create more space in the front garden. Masses of the rampant climbing rose ‘Rambling Rector’, which had spread through many shrubs and right up a tall eucalyptus tree, was sliced right back to the base with a chainsaw inadvertently. I was devastated and hope it will recover and re-climb the eucalyptus eventually! I dug out masses of brambles, docks and n
ettles on clear days when the ground was wet, so that the roots could be pulled out cleanly. Later though, I developed tennis elbow due to the strain on my right arm!