Pat Duke: Future-proof your patch for heavy rains

In the Garden

As the year draws to a close, it can often be an opportunity to look back on what went well and what could have gone better. The overriding factor of this gardening year has been the persistent amount of rainwater. 

With no sign that this is going to be any different in years to come, it’s worth future proofing the garden. 

Whilst we’ve got a break from the call of regular maintenance  now is a great time to undertake tasks like spreading thick mulch. 

This will improve the structure of the soil and also raise the levels. Adding grit or sand will improve drainage so that water runs away without taking too much with it in the way of nutrients or upturning plants. 

On a dry day it's worth building a raised bed so any excess water won’t come into contact with the precious plants. 

If you have an area that’s particularly affected by standing water then dig a soakaway. This sounds technical but is actually just a hole that’s anything over a metre deep and filled with stones, rubble or bricks to quickly do what it says on the tin as it were. These jobs can be done whilst we have the time away from the growing season.

Planting trees or shrubs at this time of year, such as Skimmia japonica, adding winter colour, is a great way to offset excess rainwater as the roots from trees and shrubs love the water and send their roots even deeper to assist in drainage. 

Skimmia japonica is a shrub that will not only enjoy wintry conditions, it will also provide colour in the form of red, turning to white berries through spring and summer as well as deep green waxy leaves all year round. 

This hardly needs attention or pruning and can be looked after in the same way as camellias and rhododendrons. It will guarantee you winter colour in the form of tiny red berries that form a clump and look like a single flower from a distance. 

On the Plot

Once you’ve been down there and dug up the veg for Christmas dinner, make a mental note of where next year's crops are going to go in succession to prevent disease. 

On a dry, sunny day over the holidays get organised and plant seedlings indoors that keep your enthusiasm for gardening as there is nothing we like doing more than actually planting seeds. Coriander and winter salad crops are nice and easy and fast growing for the horticultural equivalent of instant gratification. 

After all the holiday excess has waned and you can’t stomach any more pate and there are only sad looking toffee pennies strewn in the bottom of the chocolate tub it will be refreshing to have some micro greens to hand. 

These brightly flavoured and vitamin rich seedlings will kick start any New Year’s resolution. 

They can even be sown indoors on a windowsill and just scattered across the compost in a tray then lightly covered. There is nothing precise about this, it’s just a quick two week turnaround until they can be scattered over a salad or eaten by the forkful. 

Any leafy salad crop will do, but mix some herbs in there, particularly basil varieties. 

Mustard, beets, kale, radish, red cabbage, and the ubiquitous cress can all be grown in a damp compost lined tray and then cut off with scissors. 

Succession sowing these is a five minute job with the only downside being the potential for a domestic admonishment for ‘getting soil everywhere’. 

They will get the new year off to a great start and before you know it you will be planting chillies and tomatoes indoors by the end of January and the dark days of December will be a distant memory as we thrust into a bright and promising new year.