Gardening Tasks for Winter: Sissinghurst's Head Gardener Offers Winter Garden Chores Advice
Winter may be a chilly season, but it's far from a dormant period in the beautiful gardens of Sissinghurst Castle in Kent. With the grounds open daily from 11am to 5.30pm (admission £17), visitors can witness the practical, efficient approach to winter garden maintenance that balances aesthetics with labor-saving techniques.
One such method is the 'Chop and Drop' technique, employed by Troy Scott-Smith, the head gardener at Sissinghurst. This involves chopping plant material and leaving it on the soil surface as mulch, saving time and energy during garden maintenance.
Another recommended job is reinventing pots with perennials. Instead of raising tender annuals, hardy perennials such as salvias, *Verbena bonariensis*, hostas, and lavenders are used in larger containers. Grouping the pots together reduces watering time, and ensuring plants in the same pot have similar watering needs makes for a low-maintenance display.
Companion planting in vegetable beds is also encouraged. Ground-cover companion plants like alyssum, viola, tagetes, and calendula are planted among crops to suppress weeds and attract beneficial insects. Space rows generously (at least 50 cm apart) to allow hoeing rather than hand-weeding, which is quicker and easier on the back.
Hoeing vegetable or flower beds should be done in dry conditions as it is ineffective in wet weather, when hand-weeding becomes necessary. In winter, established hydrangeas are mulched with organic material like cedar or pine straw to protect roots.
Winter is also the ideal time for bareroot planting of plants such as roses, hedging, trees, and shrubs. Each year in winter, a few hazel stems are selectively cut to the ground in the Nuttery to maintain the balance of new and old stems. The Nuttery, or nut platt, is made up of Kentish cobnuts, a variety of hazel thought to be planted at the turn of the 19th century.
Pruning is another essential winter task. Pruning involves removing old wood to encourage new growth, pruning back flowered stems, and tying down new long shoots. At Sissinghurst, pruning of roses starts in November, usually with climbers and ramblers, and continues into December and January with shrub roses. Many 'old roses' are grown at Sissinghurst, with Vita Sackville-West, the castle's former owner, loving the romance of these old roses and planting them freely.
Planting bulbs is a common winter gardening task, with the aim to get all spring-flowering bulbs planted by Christmas. This year, Narcissus 'Snipe', a cyclamineus type raised in Wales in the 1940s, is being planted in the beds and borders. Fritillaria pontica and Cyclamen coum are also being planted in raised stone troughs for experimentation.
Before the first frosts of winter, bamboo sticks are placed horizontally and marked with different-coloured tape to identify plant crowns. Today, the polyanthus have gone, and a palette of woodland plants colonizes the half-light of the nut grove at Sissinghurst.
Winter is also a time for taking hardwood cuttings of many shrubs, including lilacs, for propagation. Hardwood cuttings are made by cutting 30cm long stems, with a flat cut at the base and a sloping cut at the top, and pushing them into the soil for rooting. The process of taking hardwood cuttings can take about 18 months before the cuttings are ready for moving and replanting.
Visitors to Sissinghurst Castle can explore these winter gardening techniques first-hand, gaining insight into the practical, efficient approach to maintaining a beautiful garden through the colder months. The castle's address is Biddenden Road, nr Cranbrook, Kent TN17 2AB, and its phone number is 01580 710700.
- At Sissinghurst Castle, the Chop and Drop technique is used in gardening, where plant material is chopped and left as mulch, reducing time and energy during maintenance.
- In the colder months, winter gardening involves planting bulbs, such as Narcissus 'Snipe', cyclamineus type, and Fritillaria pontica, with the aim to have all spring-flowering bulbs planted by Christmas.
- A low-maintenance display can be created in larger pots by reinventing them with hardy perennials like salvias, Verbena bonariensis, hostas, and lavenders instead of using tender annuals.
