As Sue Swift asked in a comment on an earlier entry, why do we close over winter and what do we do while we’re closed?

The answer to the first question is simple – I have just followed the pattern set by previous owners in closing at the end of September, and since that was what was published in several magazines before I took over, there seemed little point staying open. Apparently the original owners shut up shop and immediately went on holiday for three weeks in October. I can understand that, having worked flat out all summer myself. And since we live on site it is nice to have the house and garden all to ourselves after sharing it with visitors all summer. But there is a horticultural reason too. The nursery specialises in hardy herbaceous perennials which die back in winter, so there’s not a lot to see. On the other hand, October is traditionally a good month for planting perennials. And with no income coming in until March it does put huge pressure on the summer months. I’ll repeat the pattern next year, then reconsider.

So, what are we up to? The big project in the garden is creating two huge new beds which will be our new introduction for next year, to help celebrate Cheshire’s Year of the Garden. Debbie and Peter have nearly finished digging them out, and on Friday we marked out the paths through it. We’ll start planting next week.

We are going to leave most of the garden clear up work until spring, partly to leave the seed heads for wildlife and partly so that we can clear up, mulch and present the garden in spring in one go. But we are removing old and sick plants, getting rid of some of the many little circles in lawns with one shrub in them and doing some of the renovation pruning that there was no time for last spring.

I’m spending most of my time on the nursery. In September I divided Irises, Hemerocallis and Hellebores and we cleared out the last of the inherited poor stock. I’ve spent several days taking root cuttings of Japanese Anemones (to get rid of stem and leaf eelworm), Oriental Poppies and Dicentra. We sowed quite a lot of seed and took cuttings of Penstemons and Salvias with varying degrees of success and we’re now pricking out and potting on. But we’ll do most of the propagation work in spring. I’ve also ordered 5,000 new young plants for delivery in spring so February and March are going to be manic.

Away from the nursery, I’m back at college one day a week completing my RHS Advanced Certificate and am putting in roughly a day a week in the IT business run by my better half. I’ve just had confirmation that a garden design I’ve been working on has been approved, and we start on that next week. Plus I’ve got two smaller design projects on the go which I am a bit behind on. I’m also booked to do 5 evening talks for garden groups over the winter which I need to prepare and have one magazine article to write. So, it’s just as well we are closed – I don’t know how I’d fit it all in otherwise!

I don’t like posting without a picture, but I don’t have anything topical – so you’ll have to wait until Monday and I’ll add some pictures of the polytunnels with all the new stock quietly growing on for next year.

November 3, 2007