Volume 135
Part 12
There was a time when I likened gardening in December to going back to the scene of a particularly riotous party and having to clear up the next day (well, in parts of my garden anyway). The main elements stood pristine – hedges, trees and evergreen shrubs – but all other plants were in various degrees of disarray. I tidied this unthinkingly, pleased with the resulting order. These days, however, I am less rigorous, due largely to the realisation that all the detritus has a purpose in providing homes for wildlife, particularly overwintering insects. I am quite at home with the fuzziness, particularly when ornamental grass and spent flower stems are rimed with frost.
Ian Hodgson, Editor
Video
Watch our four-part interview with plantsman Roy Lancaster
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