Pat Duke: Your wisteria needs a touch of discipline

In the Garden

Despite the strange weather patterns we are having at the moment, which includes bright sunshine immediately after a hurricane has passed through, the garden is still demanding of our time. 

Most gardens have a wisteria, or if not, one making its way through from next door. It's the best time to give them their winter prune around now. 

Wisteria won’t just look after themselves, they need some discipline and it's up to us to do this twice a year. 

If you remember from September the new long, wispy shoots were cut back to six leaves/buds. Now they need cutting back again to three buds. 

There are no leaves now so it’s easier to see what you’re doing. Doing this encourages the formation of more bracts, or flower buds for a fantastic display in late spring through to early summer.  

Another very good reason to do this is that if you don’t it will encourage the shoots to find cracks and crevices and spread like a triffid seeking world domination. Also it's a great excuse to get outside on a bright day and feel like you’ve earned that extra mug of tea. 

It’s surprising every year at this time how many weed seedlings have sprouted even in the coldest weather. You can offset this and save yourself valuable time in spring by taking the hoe with you on patrols round the winter garden. 

Any deep rooted perennial weeds can be flipped out with a trowel and they and their offspring  can’t spread their millions of seeds over the coming season. 

Nothing is more disheartening than seeing expensive plants and shrubs die off and not know why. Get to know your soil by testing it with a cheap kit from the garden centre. This will also make any casual observers think you've moved on to a higher gardening plane that only Monty and you exist on. 

Knowing the pH of your soil will help you choose the plants that will do well in your garden. You can also tailor make beds with different types of soil structure to grow specific types of plants. Then you really will have moved on as a gardener! 

On the Plot  

The exciting thing about late January is that we can plant things indoors knowing they can go straight into the ground as soon as temperatures reach just above Baltic.

Feltham First Early peas can be sown in toilet roll tubes filled with compost. Bedfordshire Champion onions can be thinly sown in a seed tray. They'll need to be kept damp and indoors for now and the tray laid on some newspaper . Soon enough you'll be planting them outdoors in their final spot. 

Leeks can also be sown and cared for in the same way, but try different varieties for successional picking.

Roxton F1 mature just before Carentan 2 fatten up in late autumn. Make sure you clearly label which tray is which. This is something I need to get better at as it's classed as administration somewhere in mind which is an anathema to instinctive gardeners who just love being outdoors and growing anything.

If you’ve already got winter onions established, and why would not you, just run some wood ash along the bed to spurt them on in their development. 

Bear in mind a three-year crop rotation and add compost to the root bed, rotted manure for beans and alliums, whilst the third group consisting of brassicas and spinach will need lime, fertiliser and compost adding. I tend to move mine clockwise simply because it’s easier to remember . 

It’s lovely to see the nights stretching out and a slight increase in temperatures on some afternoons is a sure sign that things are changing for the warmer. Using this time to prepare will give you a head start when spring is here.