Gardening: Why does it always rain on me?

In the Garden

I know many people moan about the rain, and indeed it can add a pinch of inconvenience to our everyday lives. Running from the car to the supermarket or having to brave reversing in the lanes to avoid a newly formed lake can push the positives of rain furthest from our minds. 

The brutal truth is that like every living thing, we all need rain. When the weather presenter subjectively bemoans the imminent arrival of rain I often promote the counter majority view (out loud to the TV!) of ‘I quite like a bit of rain’. 

We can work with it by planting trees and roses in particular. We’d need to water them in anyway, but without rain this would prove tricky. It washes the sharp sand into the hollow tines we’ve forked in the lawn for this very purpose. It soaks deep into the ground to form a water table that roots search for that keeps them alive in drought conditions. 

How many instructions call for ‘do it just before rain is imminent’ or ‘do it when the ground is soft’. The truth of the matter is rain is an essential part of keeping the planet and ourselves alive just like sunshine but it seems to get an unfair reputation.  

Winter colour is n’t always about petals and rust coloured leaves, it comes in all forms and stems are a large part of achieving emotionally uplifting views across the garden, particularly on wet days. 

So in keeping with skilfully working alongside conditions, choose a rose to plant and look after, or even better, find a striking willow variety like Salix alba var. ‘vitellina’.  You can grow this as a coppiced shrub or pollard it for an ongoing firework effect against the monochrome background.  Plant Dogwood ‘Midwinter Fire’ for exactly what the name says on the tin. Red Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’ can’t get enough of damp ground for its bright stems to flourish. 

On the Plot  

If you’ve covered soft fruits, they can be uncovered now to let hungry birds do their work. Is it just me or have robins become much braver in bouncing alongside whilst you’re on your knees weeding. They will peck over insects and pests seeking to hibernate until next season. 

Autumn fruiting raspberries can be pruned to ground level to give them every chance to fruit on the new canes formed in spring next year. Remember raspberries are greedy in terms of needing essential nutrients. This is because when they are grown with care they produce a proliferation of flowers, fruit and leaves so need energy to work that hard. Feeding them produces entirely different results than just ignoring them. 

Indoors there are still chillies ripening, but they will need to be either overwintered or cleared away. Overwintering them will give you a head start next year which is important with chillies. Cut the stems down above a bud by a third and pot them up making sure they don’t get overwatered. The trick is to keep them out of any frosty, colder conditions that feel below room temperature.

You might have to negotiate bringing them indoors or gently heat a greenhouse. Leaves will resemble crisps and drop off like a miniature tree but the branches will stay alive. When early spring comes then increase watering and carry on as you would with seedlings until fruits appear and you can reach for the tomato feed. 

It’s a great time to get on top of the weeds with a newly sharpened hoe and whiz round all the edges of beds to stop them spreading from paths. Go round with the loppers and make future maintenance easy by removing anything that overhangs or creates shadow. Apple and pear trees can be sat under in mid summer if there’s enough room under the canopy. It’s helpful to think of hazy summer days in deepest winter.