Enjoying the Garden Together

   

upper pond

As 2019 approaches the final few days it is naturally a time for a little reflection. While this is not the reflection of the winter sun in the upper pond but rather what has worked well and what has worked less than well this year.

I will post about these in coming days but reflection takes time and a cup of Bovril to do properly. My last top tip of the year is to make time to enjoy your garden at all times of the year!

Of course all this hard work of sitting, planning and contemplating is so much easier with a little company. Mili and Hecate were quick to join me this morning and unusually seemed to enjoy each others company nearly as much.

Winter Solstice

We have now passed the winter solstice and for the next six month the days will be getting longer. The Pagan celebration of Winter Solstice (also known as Yule) is one of the oldest winter celebrations in the world. Early people were hunters and gatherers therefore the seasons and weather played a very important part in their lives, pretty much as it does for gardeners and golfers. Because of this many ancient people had a great reverence for, and even worshipped the sun. The Norsemen of Northern Europe saw the sun as a wheel that changed the seasons. It was from the word for this wheel, houl, that the word yule is thought to have come. At mid-winter the Norsemen lit bonfires, told stories and drank sweet ale.

Sadly, I am increasingly of the belief that materialism has corrupted the joyous Christmas season. The antidote for me is simple, to relish the company of good friends and family and then to get outdoors and appreciate the raw beauties of nature. Of course, I am not the first to express these sentiments.

"The Christians stole the winter solstice from the pagans and the capitalism have stolen it from the Christians" George Monbiot (author and environmental campaigner)

Consequently, I heartily recommend getting your dose of fresh air, particularly if you can share it with family, friends or felines.

Hecate inspects translucent honesty seed pods

Mili in thoughtful disposition

 

 The Pennine vistas can still be appreciated from the top of the garden, despite the cold.The farmers fields a reminder that the season of celebration and merry making are still a time for grafting for many others.

And once you are outside seek out the remaining flashes of colour that seem especially valuable at this time of the year, the polyanthus and the grasses try their best before the first spring bulbs break the surface.

  

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you who visit these pages or stumble across them by accident all the very best for Christmas and hope you all have a wonderful prosperous and healthy new year.

With Pointed Leaves

Yesterday, as is my usual habit on a Saturday morning, I read Nigel Colborn's gardening column in the Daily Mail. He wrote an interesting piece on hollies in our gardens. This prompted me to think about how the Ilex aquifolium, meaning with pointed leaves has a really undervalued role in our Pennine garden. It can clearly tolerate a variety of planting locations and as such it has served a range of understated but very useful functions.

The specimen to the left forms part of the boundary between ourselves and the neighbours. It is currently adorned with the bright red berries that are synonymous with the holly and which are much appreciated by the bird and animal life in the garden. Of course, both male and female plants are required if the tree is to produce its berries.

At the front of the house the hollies serve to mask the rather functional and not to pretty brick steps. They are particularly valuable because their evergreen nature distracts the eye somewhat from what is now rapidly becoming a rather bare looking cotoneaster plant. The evergreen characteristic is the reason why the pre Christians are thought to have believed that bringing inside boughs of the holly tree would ensure a return of Spring after the winter. It is connected to the integral magical powers that allowed the holly to retain its leaves. Of course, like many pagan traditions it has since been incorporated into Christian beliefs so that the berries are now symbolic of the blood of Christ and the sharp points (of many but not all hollies) represents the crown of thorns.

Elsewhere the hollies serve to give that all important winter structure, such as as backdrop for the ornamental grasses. As you can see they are in need of a trim not least because the holly is actually a tree and will keep growing if not kept pruned. However, this is not a major task  because most hollies grow at only a modest rate, but my top tip would be to plant with a medium to long term view and get a decent pair of gardening gloves.

Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79) had some advice about the best spot to plant,  in  “Historia naturalis”, an encyclopedic study of plants and animal life, he noted that if Holly is planted near a house or farm, it would repell poison and defended it from lightning and witchcraft. You might want to bare this in mind as well.


The hollies we have at the front have lovely variegated leaves. These are particularly nice, as when using the steps, at the front or side of the house, you are certain to get a good close up view of these lovely and underrated garden plants. 

I am often guilty of giving too much time and attention to my garden specimens that are either "flashy" or rather tricky to grow. But Nigel Colborn has reminded me not to take the plants that do well, without much fuss, for granted.