Pat Duke: Take some 'me time' in the shed

Since most of the region has been under water recently and it's hard to get outdoors without a soaking then it's time to decamp to the shed. For most gardeners a few hours in the shed or greenhouse is no hardship. Even better if the rain is battering the roof and there’s a steaming mug of tea on the potting bench. 

Taking cuttings, growing from seed, dividing and even bringing on leftover bits and pieces from your weekly shop are all exciting jobs if you need some ‘me time’ in the shed.  

The added advantage of doing these things is that they are effectively free plants which is a skilful way to beat a broken system. 

Taking a cutting is effectively cloning a plant using a small part of the parent plant and placing it in compost until it develops its own roots promoting the exact DNA of the adult plant. You should also find that they will grow quicker than growing from seed. 

Hardwood and semi-ripe cuttings can be taken at this time of year with some success. A semi-ripe stem is one that is just phasing from green into a woody stem. This will make it easier to establish as the stem is half way there and won’t die off quite as easily as a fully green stem. 

Many shrubs that are more resilient, or later flowering perennials can benefit from this technique. Penstemon, Hebe and Viburnum are great candidates. 

Hardwood cuttings are unsurprisingly taken from woody plants once the leaves have fallen or removed when rubbed gently between the fingers. Plants in this category include Forsythia, Buddleah, Dogwood and Deutzia. 

Dogwood is the easiest and it can even be harder to stop it rooting when it's damp. A cutting of dogwood made on the angel and poked into soft ground will generally reproduce itself.

Try not to be intimidated by progressing your gardening skills and knowledge and just throw yourself into experimentation. What's the worst that can happen? After all most industrial sized garden centres use these techniques to duplicate plants.

If you buy a plant you effectively buy all the rights to replicating its DNA. No need to go back and buy it again or even two separate plants. 

On the Plot

Famously, cuttings can be taken from vegetables. Think how a potato can grow from its own peel for example. 

Almost as easy is to walk along the raspberry canes and dig up any suckers, the ones that pop up nearby looking fresh and green. 

Dig them out with the roots intact and replant in a container of compost ready to plant out in spring. This is nature's way of providing sustainability for plants and gardeners. 

Onions and carrots can be helped to sprout by cutting horizontally just above the base and placing in water. 

Ginger and turmeric can be soaked overnight then planted in pots to increase your stocks. 

Lemon grass can be placed in water until it roots and then potted up somewhere dry and light until warmer weather arrives. This is a tremendous plant for regenerating after its picked and will thrive for years in a pot if watered and fed with tomato feed here and there. As long as it's kept out of the cold you will never buy it again. 

You could also give fruit pips a helping hand by planting them in compost and looking after them on the windowsill indoors. This includes citrus trees as well as apples, pears and cherries. 

Imagine what our horticultural lives would be like without garden centres. We might well manage quite comfortably albeit slightly slower which is no bad thing.  

Thinking about how we might garden differently has only taken a few days of rain rather than an armageddon, but it’s definitely an idea to learn new free and efficient skills.