With Juneen Schultz
The winter solstice has come and gone which means our daylight hours are becoming ever so slowly longer. But this also means we have just passed the half way mark of the year. How does this happen so quickly? It seems like it was just yesterday that the year had begun. But the halfway point gives us an opportunity to look at our situation and take stock of how resilient we are. I can’t stress enough how important it is to grow some of your own food, even if it’s a few pots of herbs at the back door. Connecting to nature by gardening helps to de-stress, and links us with the grassroots existence of our forbearers, who spent most of their days providing homegrown food for the table.
Winter is still a very busy time in the garden, with many deciduous trees and vines to prune. And there is always maintenance of other sorts, like weeding, sorting seeds, tool cleaning and oiling, mulching pathways etc.
Now is also a great time to divide your rhubarb if it’s a few years old. Compost and manure the new rhubarb patch as these hungry plants love lots of rich soil. Give them light soft mulch. Rhubarb is such a great pick and come again fruit.
Strawberries can be planted now too, by getting some of the new plants that have rooted from your last year’s plants. Strawberries love pine needle mulch, so make them happy with this acid type mulch.
A number of years ago I planted three little apple trees which were grafted onto an extra small root stock and pruned to be ‘step over apples’. They are just one metre high and two metres wide. I’ve just harvested one of these apples - the Lady William - this past week, and got 110 apples from the one tree, unbelievable for such a small tree. I’m impressed. It’s worth considering these different ways to make space for fruit trees as you plan your winter garden.
What to plant now
Broad beans, garlic, brown onions, walking onions, shallots, peas, spinach, asparagus crowns, rhubarb, strawberries, berry fruits and deciduous fruiting trees.
