Wrapping up for Christmas

                                                                

Most  of the plants in my garden are hardy but there are one or two that don't like being frozen including the tree fern, the up and coming generation of echiums and one dahlia. This garden is pretty well sheltered and this part of London not prone to a lot of frost but these three will suffer if they do get caught in a cold winter. I like to wrap them up in December although it doesn't usually begin to get really cold here until January and February. 

I wish I could create wrapped sculptures out of my tender plants, like the Japanese for whom it has become a fine art. But as long as I can keep things alive and well, I don't mind them looking rather bizarre during the winter when the ground gets very soggy and I don't venture into the garden  much anyway. 

In the past I've tried various wrappings as protection from the cold including a wool-like padding which is not wool, as I discovered when it refused to break down in the compost heap and the birds rejected it as nesting material. (They know a man-made product when they see it.) 

Dahlia with wool, bubble wrap and bricks

Echium roots covered in wool and bricks

The echiums during their second year have grown too tall and bushy for easy wrapping. I did try one year to plant bamboo stakes round them and create a little fence with horticultural felt. Nowadays I just cover the root area with mock wool padding - or real wool padding which comes as part of the insulated packaging for the organic, grass-fed meat I sometimes buy. If spread over a wide enough area, that usually does the trick, but here, it's not enough on its own. The foxes really love the padding and will tug and pull it until it lies in little fluffy pieces all over the lawn. So now I cover the wool with bubble wrap and cover the bubble wrap with bricks. It is far from beautiful but it does work as a duvet and has kept the plants alive so far. I do the same with my one dahlia. It doesn't need to be lifted, provided I keep its roots warm. 

Tree fern with wool and bricks

The tree fern I treat in much the same way, although I try to carry the wrapping some way up the trunk. One of its weaknesses is the crown, which can get soggy in winter and cause rot. So I scrunch up a bit of horticultural fleece and tuck it in amongst the new fronds just beginning to form. 

Mini cloches over the lettuces

Large cloche protecting giant parsley

Other things that require protection are what's left of the autumn lettuces in the veg trug - nearly finished now but kept from autumn chills by my plastic cloches. I've had several sizes of these cloches for many years now and they are invaluable for numerous things including frost protection of seedlings and  cuttings. At present I have a large cloche covering several pots including a giant parsely seedling for next year, a red currant cutting and a perennial cabbage seedling. 

It's not just cold weather one has to protect from though. I use my cloches as anti-squirrel, fox and cat guards too. There's another one over a piece of bare earth near a small daphne which, for some reason the marmalade cat from next-door-but-one keeps scraping into heaps.

Strip of plastic chicken wire over bulb pots

Plastic wire protects bulbs in ground

I have some stiff plastic netting that I put over newly planted bulbs, tulips especially, which squirrels love to dig up. I spread this out over the bulbs and weigh  it down with bricks and so far no squirrel has managed to break in. 

So -  all wrapped up. I wish you all a Happy Christmas and will be back again in 2021.