I appreciate almost everything has been digitalised and now newspapers, tv and social media are littered with the threat of AI turning are ever fragile world into a scene from the Matrix but in our household, we still use an old-fashioned calendar! I have a digital calendar for work so that the team can keep up to date with what is going on and where we all are but for a busy family, the simplest form, is a calendar hung-up on the side of a cupboard in the kitchen. This morning, I turned to the last page and couldn’t believe that we are in December already and the end of the year is upon us. I obviously shouldn’t be surprised, not only am I a grown up and know the order of months and how the seasons work but I have also had the family calendar as a daily reminder. It is not like it is a big surprise but this year it really does feel that time has evaporated. Maybe it’s because this year our spring felt like summer and our summer felt like spring or that due to the financial crisis and wars still raging that adventures have been muted or at the very least tinged with guilt. It feels like all the highlights, especially in my garden have passed me by. Of course, this isn’t really true, there were nights spent enjoying the garden with friends, my daughter hosting her birthday party in the summer, endless afternoons spent playing football with my son and the star performers that have looked amazing. The Alliums in spring, the Hydrangeas in the shady areas in summer, the blues and greens of the Ceratostigma in autumn to name but a few. In a well-designed garden there should be all year-round interest, but all gardens need something evergreen to glue everything together. Not just gardens but at this time of year evergreens are used as the ‘glue’ as a backdrop for wreaths and garlands. Even the evergreen Christmas tree itself is really a backdrop to set the scene for the lights and decorations (I appreciate that most people’s Christmas trees do not stay evergreen however).
In almost all our designs we add evergreen structure to ground a design and add additional interest throughout the year but particularly at this festive time of year. Taxus baccata is the preferred option (and now is the most cost-effective time to buy) but plants such as Euonymus ‘Green Spire’ and Lonicera nitida are excellent alternatives. All will become an option for nesting wildlife and be the constant in your garden when next years stars shine and fade.
© Velvet Magazine