Garden Journal, October 4th 2023

How do you schedule activities in the garden? Do you have a firm routine, for example “plant new bulbs during September”? Or do you take a more free and easy approach, such as “plant bulbs sometime before Christmas”? Does this distinction matter?

It mattered for me last year, when the autumn remained surprisingly mild, right up until the moment that it didn’t. When that moment arrived, the prevailing meteorology transitioned directly from mild to ice age. This was rather bothersome, as our patio was occupied by pots of exotica; bananas, gingers and cannas, plants which do not respond well to hard freezes.

The rule of thumb I had been following was something along the lines of “I’ll put these tender plants in the greenhouse just after the first frost”. It’s a rule that had worked for me previously. In a typical year the first sparkly morning of frost would arrive, burning the leaves of tender plants, but not freezing them solid. I’d take this as my cue to tidy up, and move the unfrozen pots into the protection of the greenhouse. But last years first frost was so sudden, cold and prolonged that significantly more harm was done to tender plants.

The slightly heartbreaking damage that followed could have been avoided if I’d been following a similar, but different, version of the same rule. Annoyingly, the alternative version was the one that I thought I normally followed, namely, “I’ll put these tender plants in the greenhouse in early November”. If I had followed that rule, my Hedychium and Canna would have been safely drying out in the protection of the greenhouse, and their fleshy rhizomes would not have experienced such a destructive freeze.

So why didn’t I follow the right version of the rule? Why did I procrastinate until it was too late? The reason is boringly prosaic; in most years “the first frost” is “in early November”. In most years, and without really thinking about it, I am following both rules simultaneously . Last year I got carried away with following the weather and taking advantage of the mild spell, ignoring my normal schedule. The consequence shouldn’t really have been surprising, after all, the first frost is always coming. It is important to be flexible, and pay attention to what the weather is actually doing, rather than what you think it should be doing. But never forget the value of experience. Needless to say, my greenhouse will be being well packed up this November.