Foliage fringed with frost is a familiar sight in winter... or at least it should be. I'm using a photograph taken back in January to illustrate this entry. The temperature in southern England is expected to reach as high as fourteen degrees celsius tonight. Fourteen degrees at night in late December!

 We may be heading for the warmest temperatures ever recorded at this time of year. Admittedly it has been cold and damp recently but actually not that cold. There have been several air frosts but I haven't seen a hard ground frost as yet.

 I mentioned in my last entry that I am in the process of pruning some large Fig trees. The general consensus is that Figs should be pruned in winter when the tree is dormant. During this period the sap is falling rather than rising. Fig trees can be bleed badly if pruned in summer (though I must admit I have done minor ad hoc pruning on these ones without ill effect in the summer months).

 Clearly hard pruning is best done on them in winter and I wondered if I should wait until March or April as some sources suggest. The thinking is to prune after the danger of heavy frosts of passed. I see the logic in that but I think climate change is changing the way we have to garden. I would think there is probably more likely to be an early spring than a late blast of winter in which case many plants will be coming out of dormancy during March.

 One of the first gardening books I bought back in the day was "The Garden Expert" by Dr. DG Hessayon; his "Expert" series of books on various aspects of horticulture were standard tomes for many a gardener from the fifties onwards. He advised that the frost season in the UK begins in October, sometimes earlier in the north. Well, I don't think I will open the curtains tomorrow and look out on a cold and frosty morning.  

 Thoughts on pruning Fig trees. These ones have grown pretty large and I've given myself the task of pruning them. Partly I want to reduce their height somewhat, also to open up the structure by removing tangled and crossing branches. 

 The A-frame ladder and an extending pole gives me just about the reach I need. It's not easy though, I'm having to stand on the highest point of the 'A' using the pole fully extended. I would probably lean an extending ladder into a sturdier tree but safety first in this case. 

 The wood is soft and flexible. That means I can use the lopping attachment on the pole to cut through quite thick branches (about 3/4 inch/20mm). The saw attachment is not proving as useful as I had hoped on the more substantial limbs. Their flexibility makes it hard to get good purchase with the blade. As I move it in a sawing motion the whole branch is apt to flail about.

 Where I can use a handheld pruning saw the softness of the wood makes for easy cutting and the long handled loppers bite through branches a bit thicker than I can manage with the pole. However these are only an option on lower branches I can stretch to from the ladder.

 An added difficulty is that cut branches are hard to extract from the surrounding tangle. Also I'm having to move the ladder a lot to get myself in the optimum position to use one or other of the tools at my disposal. And I keep getting pelted with hard unripened figs when the tree shakes! 

 

  There are places I'll remember as the song says. Another year when travel has been difficult or impossible but I managed few excursions. The Pegsdon Hills on the Herfordshire/Bedfordshire border looked almost alpine under snow last January.

In summer sunshine those same hills were shimmering with grasses and wildflowers.

 

 A walk through Bluebells in Hitch Wood near Hitchin means spring has arrived.

 

   The Walthamstow marshes are one of my go to places for some urban ecology. The River Lea wends its way through Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire into London where it joins the Thames at Bow Creek. The London stretch preserves some valuable habitats, once rural but now encompassed by the metropolis.

 I think my favourite walk of the year was up on the South Downs in mid-September. It was a gloriously autumnal day rounded off in Lewes with a glorious pint.

 

 A few weeks later I went to see the sea albeit not far from London on the Kent coast near Whitstable. On a clear day you can see Southend...

 

 Season's greetings. Actually it isn't a white Christmas in southern England, this photo is from January 2013. The dusting of snow on the bare branches of the Stag's Horn Sumach (Rhus typhina) is the closest thing I could find to a seasonal image.

 Bamboo is a useful plant to have around (in moderation at least). My father planted several clumps which have slowly increased in size and provide a ready supply of canes. As a rule of thumb Bamboo species are either runners or clumpers. The runners can be very invasive and should be treated with caution.

 A Happy Solstice to one and all. Summer is on the way.

 All vegetables are flowering plants but most we eat before they get to that stage. Among this row of cabbages on a neighbouring allotment are some that are flowering cheerily albeit on a grey day in December.  

 Winter on the allotment, looking rather bleak on a cold and foggy day. I had intended to plant some winter veg but didn't get round to it so will concentrate on preparations for next year. Roll on spring.

 At ground level there is a rich ecology where the world above meets the soil below. That is why "untidy" gardens are important. Fallen leaves, decaying wood, plants, creepy crawlies et al create extraordinary biodiversity. Without the smallest living organisms we wouldn't have the largest. 

 Edible Landscapes in Finsbury Park have a ready supply of wood chip courtesy of the park gardeners. A very useful resource for covering the paths and mulching the beds. I did some shovelling and borrowing when I visited the garden on Tuesday.

  As a rule of thumb any soil is improved by adding organic matter. In fact some plants thrive on nutrient poor soil but in general mulching is all to the good. At this time of year a layer of wood chip adds to nature's mulch i.e. fallen leaves.

 Winter reveals the structure of a garden. When I first visited Edible Landscapes in Finsbury Park six weeks ago I described it as a "sylvan scene". [see entry dated 31st. October] 

 Now the trees are bare it feels altogether more open. I look forward to seeing it in spring when a burst of growth will appear at ground level before the canopy comes back into leaf.

 A mini dead hedge to fill the gap between an ancient fence panel and a new fence put up recently by my father's neighbour. Seemed like a good opportunity to make use of some of the stems and branches I've accumulated lately during pruning.

 Dead hedges are basically a linear pile to define a boundary. Simpler than building a wall or erecting a fence, quicker than planting an actual hedge. Some are elaborately layered, others pretty basic like this one. 

 As it happens I had a mass of Hawthorn from an adjacent (living) hedge that I pruned a few weeks ago [see entry dated 10th. November]. Security isn't an issue here but Hawthorn is viciously prickly alive or dead. I wove some long thin Fig Tree branches -which are quite flexible and whippy- along the length of the hedge and used some shorter thicker ones as uprights. 

 Nature loves piles of green and brown stuff. Dead hedging functions as a form of habitat creation. I'll add to this one as and when I gather more material.  

 The electric shredder comes in very handy at this time of year. Large amounts of cuttings and clippings can be reduced considerably. I generally add diced and sliced greenery to the compost heap and use woody matter for mulch on beds or paths.

 I don't do product placement but for the purposes of this entry I will mention that I use two different models regularly and there is something to be said for both of them. One is the Bosch seen above. Internally it has a spinning blade which works very well for cutting greenery to tiny pieces. Twigs and thin branches are fine but it struggles with thicker branches .

 I also have a Makita (below) which makes good chunky chips from thicker branches by grinding them between two ridged rollers. However thin stems tend to pass through mangled but not shredded. Other makes are available but the basic distinction is between blade (i.e. impact shredders) and roller (i.e. crushing shredders). As I say they both have their advantages and drawbacks.

 A few points to bear in mind. Blade shredders are cheaper on the whole but it's worth checking that you are buying one for which replacement blades are readily available. Also take into account what thickness of branch can be fed into the slot. The Makita for example takes branches up to an inch and half or so (35mm or thereabouts). If you want to be chipping logs the price jumps from hundreds to thousands of pounds for the kind of machine used by tree surgeons.

 Tools of the trade. Long handled loppers for the lower branches. The extending pole with pruning saw and lopper attachments allows me to prune at quite a height without leaving the ground.

 

 Plants for shade part nine. There have been a number of native species among these entries but the majority are introductions from other parts of the world. Gardeners and horticulturalists have long sought out species that adapt well to UK conditions. 

  Then again we shouldn't overlook the plants that have been here all along. I always try to include the likes of Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris), Primrose (Primula vulgaris) and Sweet Woodruff (Gallium odoratum) in a shady garden.    

 

Winter trees silhouette the grey sky.

 Fallow fields from a train window.

 This is Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea) which in fact isn't an Ivy. It's a low growing mat forming plant of the Lamiaceae plant family with scallop shaped leaves and tiny flowers. On these grey wintry days I'm reviewing some of the photos I took earlier in the year but didn't get round to posting. 

 Back in April I saw the largest expanse of G. hederacea I've ever come across. It's common enough to find small patches of it in grassland and the margins of hedgerows and woodland. On a walk in Hertfordshire I came across an orchard carpeted with Ground Ivy. It's aromatic so I was interested to know if it has any herbal history; Lamiaceae is known variously as the dead-nettle/mint/sage family. 

 Sure enough according to Plantlife's website Ground Ivy was used by the Saxons to flavour and clarify ale, was known as a lung-cleansing herb to treat coughs and other respiratory illnesses, is rich in vitamin C and can be used to make a herbal tea! 

 Well, a diary doesn't have to be strictly chronological. These Allium sphaerocephalon were flowering like mad on the allotment back in July. I neglected to post these photos at the time so better late than never. And they're reminding me of summer on a dark, cold, rainy night.

  The garden is moving from autumn to winter. The big Sycamore tree at the back is still holding on to some of its leaves but will be bare within a few days. We've even had some overnight frosts which is actually quite unusual in London this side of Christmas.