HIGHGROVE GARDEN: IN THE GARDEN
FEBRUARY
How cheery to see the snowdrops all so quickly emerging and carpeting the woodland edges and borders at Highgrove!
One doesn’t need to be a “galanthophile” to appreciate their beauty and stoic nature; they withstand a wide variance of weather conditions, and still appear so delicate and fragile.
Masses of Striped Squill (Puschkinia scilloides var. libanotica) are just starting to emerge, earlier it seems than last year.
Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) with its bright yellow flowers adding colour to the normally dark areas under tree canopies.
With these harbingers marking Spring’s coming, the garden team are steadily working through the timely operations which need to be in place before the real burst of bud begins:
Fruit trees have arrived from a local organic Nursery – it is lovely to see these strong maiden whips being planted, knowing that it won’t take many years for them to develop into the trained fans or espaliers covering the walls in the Kitchen Garden.
The trees are planted in a well prepared hole with well rotted manure (2-3 year old) and bone meal added to the existing soil; this gives the tree a good start to what will hopefully be a long and productive life. The skills of the Estate team are called on, to replace old 
wiring in lime jointed masonry so that all the new and old trees can be tied in securely.
This is an important aspect when training trees: encouraging the shape, form and direction the growth will take. Generally we do most of our fruit pruning in mid to late summer, but a good winter tidy up and prune now picks up on anything we’ve missed and allows for any rejuvenate work to be done.
Roses are similarly being planted, with good preparation time taken on preparing the planting hole. Rose pruning and training on walls, columns and the pergola is high on the agenda for completion in the next few weeks, as buds are swelling with the increase in day length. The team are very skilled in managing these thorny characters in what can best be described as artistry in a green sort of way! Roses generally flower better when stems are tied horizontally or down; apical dominance is reduced with the buds along the stem having the opportunity to break bud and develop flower.
And just in case we don’t have enough to do, the seeds are starting to be sown in earnest in the Nursery for the vegetables and flowers this coming season…
