What can you find in your garden?
Mini project to look closely in winter for useful and free things
What I love about the end of winter, on the cusp of the growing season, is that gardens are at their lowest and barest. This allows us to take a good close look at what surprises and treats may be waiting for us.
This week I would like you to go on a treasure hunt for free plants and other natural gold in your garden. Here’s what to look for...
Seedlings of plants you like
Shoots of perennials that you like
Wildlife that’s active
Other natural objects
That’s it! That’s all you have to do this week. Make a mental note of these things and where they are, perhaps some photos as a record.
The plan is to revisit the plants on warm days over the coming weeks to either see how the grow or to dig up seedlings or bits of perennials to move elsewhere (in your garden, not from the wild).
Free plants is where the magic lies in gardening and now is the perfect time to look and make plans.
In our garden I cut back our autumn raspberries last week using my chop and drop method and I can see the original plants have expanded a lot. While dormant I have dug up some of these new stems with roots and planted in a local market garden - at least six new plants entirely for free.
Elsewhere I’ve been spotting wildflower seedlings naturally appearing around the established parent plants. Yarrow, ox-eye daisy and musk mallow. Most of these I’ll leave where they are, others I will dig up soon and move to other areas of our garden. Free flowers.
Surprisingly, we have virtually no lawn daisies in our garden. I’ve seen only two tiny patches, one in a corner of our drive (above) and another in the chicken area. They aren’t thriving in either spot, so I plan to dig up a few of the rosettes, with roots, and will plant them into our main scrappy garden path where they will be much happier.
I’m also starting to form a little list of perennials already in our garden that I want to divide soon to help increase colour. These include daylily (Hemerocallis), pulmonaria, asters and astrantia.
The great thing about this mini project is that the plants are completely free and it’s easy because there is no potting on involved. All you have to do is enjoy them where they grow or move them from one spot to another. I find it fun because I’m involved in creating something in partnership with nature.
What can you find in your garden? Please do share your treasures with me in the comments below...
Definitely a fun project! We have a stoat living under our shed, so I discovered yesterday. I’m guessing it lives on the harvest mice and field voles we get. My garden is mostly scratty grass and moss and there’s never been anything done to it (we moved in 2 years ago) but I’ve noticed the bulbs I put in last year have divided and there seem to be seedlings of various things cropping up in different places. Now I just need to work out what they are! If I manage to get a photo of the stoat I’ll share it!
Nothing at the moment after 25cm snow the past 2 days, here in Canada 🇨🇦