HAVE YOU EXCHANGED YOUR SPADE FOR A SNOW SHOVEL YET?

 By LADYBUG

This is the month when we northern gardeners finally admit the season is over – the most stubborn of us would have scraped frost off the ground and planted tulips – and exchanged our spades for snow shovels. 

We cosy up with gardening books and dream of the seasons to come.

Monty Don is a familiar name to gardeners, Gardener’s World, his television show on BBC, having delighted and educated viewers for years. Gardening At Longmeadow is a special treat, as it takes readers to his personal garden, from where he hosted many episodes. Among the sections in this garden is the evocatively named Jewel Garden.

“It is filled with only jewel- or metallic-coloured plants for maximum impact from spring to autumn.”

On the cover he sits with gorgeous dog. On the opening page, there’s an image of a posy of pansies held in muddy hands with dirt under the nails – a real gardener’s hands, I note, happily. I have always wanted to spruce up our shed so I could at least sit there and read and the image of him sitting at a desk in a garden shed over which hang boughs laden with apples has me wondering why I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

But filled with gorgeous images as it is, this book is obviously a lot more.

In it, he offers sane, calming advice for anyone starting a garden from scratch.

“Take your time. Make and unmake it in your mind until you are ready to begin. You will know in your bones when that time comes.”

And tips and plans for each month in your garden. Though, of course, his sense of renewal comes in January because again, this is a book about a garden in England, and so he can revel in the snowdrops, aconites, hellebores, winter honeysuckle, mahonia and viburnum that are all pushing into flower.

He shares old gardening wisdom: If it flowers before June, do not prune (in spring, that is) and adds to it from his experience with plants. Tips for dealing with slugs and snails – there aren’t that many that are 100 per cent effective other than poisonous pesticides the use of which he strongly discourages – include eco-friendly ones. And one that I cannot really use but love.

“Ducks, chickens, toads, hedgehogs and beetles eat slugs.”

There’s lots about the less pretty aspects of gardening, too. Digging and compost. And weeds. Which are listed under Perennial horrors and Less disastrous! On aphids, the bane of every gardener’s life, he has a surprising message.

Tolerate them. In a healthy plant they are, “no more of a hazard than midge bites or cuts and grazes for you and I. A healthy plants heals itself.”

I’ll try and remember that, I promise myself, the next time I see a stem practically vibrating with the darn things.

Because I found a kindred spirit when I discover that wood anemones, that I know as windflowers, are among his favourite plants, and that “There can be no more jubilant moment in a gardener’s calendar” than the arrival of May.

My sons were teasing me about my plant babies well before plant parents were a thing and thus I settled into Plants Are My Favourite People with a sigh of pleasure.

“Mine, too,” I murmured, reading this “relationship guide for plants and their parents”.

Aleesia Resta describes herself as an artist, gamer, plant mom, and creator of the Instagram @apartmentbotanist.

She writes about how caring for her plants helped her care for herself. “If I neglected my needs, my plants would also get overlooked. Seeing them like that pushed me to pull myself together and take better care of myself so that I could care for my plants.”

She also happens to garden in New York, so we’re on familiar ground with her, so to speak.

I learn which are her favourite plants, and how she deals with mealybugs and spidermites and her tips and tricks for happy houseplants.

In the chapter titled How to Make a Jungle Fit in Your Home I find several very useful tips for my own burgeoning indoor plant collection. Including an innovative use of mirrors.

And a fun quiz to determine your plant parent personality!