…is sometimes dreary, grey, a little drab. Let’s be honest, unless you have a garden stuffed with artfully placed, tightly clipped evergreens, that look good no matter the weather, this is just par for the course. Plants die, colours fade, the light is low and weak, the sun becomes a stranger, and it rains. And rains. And rains.

And yet…gardeners can always can find little treasures even in this subdued season. The crab apples that glisten on the tree, a late and unexpected harvest from the veg plot (more on that in a mo) and even the satisfaction of a steadily growing pile of leaves that will turn into luscious leaf mould. Here are a few things that make getting out into the garden in winter worthwhile.

But just before that, I know, I have been absent from the blogosphere since spring! Terrible behaviour, I apologise. Excuses manifold: a heavy workload from both my ongoing garden design course and my budding business, planting plans to draw, borders to plant up, and even some paid horticultural writing too…it’s been great but hard work. I just haven’t had the space in my life to blog, but I miss it, so here I am 🙂

Make your own wreath

One of the things I love to do at this time of year is to make a wreath. It gives purpose to going out into the garden or further afield, foraging for cool leaves and pretty seedheads. My first wreath this year features cute little crab apples – I usually use holly berries but for some reason we have not had many on our holly bushes this year – weather related perhaps?

Crab apple Malus ‘Evereste’

If you don’t have a crab apple tree in your garden, here’s one of many reasons why you should! The fruit really stands out and brings welcome colour, and they stay on the tree looking pretty long after the leaves have gone.

My tree is Malus ‘Evereste’, a perfect tree for a small garden. You can probably spot the clusters of red apples to the right of my chickens here:

This is how the tree looked in late October.

Oca, a Peruvian tuber

Some other treasures came from under the ground.

These are Oca, Oxalis tuberosa, a tuberous vegetable that grows in the Andes and is a staple crop in Peru. If you have never tried them before, they are delicious, nutritious and easy to grow. You plant the tubers in spring – I found mine at a local market. They put on some lovely leafy foliage that is similar in shape to another Oxalis, the purple-leaved Oxalis traingularis, or false shamrock. The slugs leave them alone, totally untouched, which was something to be thankful for in this slugtastic gardening year.

Then you just have to wait, for longer than most veg, as the tubers only start to grow after the autumn equinox, when daylight hours start to decrease. There’s a window of opportunity for them to develop up to the first frost, which kills off the foliage. Then it’s simply time to fork them up.

Interestingly, this tuber is in the Sorrel family and has that same tangy lemony taste, with some nutty sweetness too. I love them roasted with some vegetable oil and dried herbs. You shouldn’t eat too many, because of the oxalic acid content, but every now and then is fine.

Gardening workshops

Some of you will know me as the one who runs gardening workshops. Well, I still do! I’m currently planning the 2025 season, and have got a couple of dates already in the bag for early spring: a veg growing workshop and a beginners’ masterclass, always a popular one. You’ll find details and links on the Workshops section of my site. I’m also offering vouchers for both workshops and garden consultations, which you can buy as a present for someone who is perhaps struggling a bit with their garden!

Bulbs: an early Christmas present

I mentioned that I’d been doing some writing. It has brought me an unexpected but very welcome perk! I write website copy for Farmer Gracy, who are a big supplier of bulbs to the UK and European markets. As their bulb sales season closes, they have sent me a package of lovely mixed bulbs, including tulips, narcissus, alliums, fritillaries…You might think it’s getting a little late to plant bulbs, but generally speaking, there’s still time to get them into pots or in the ground if it’s not frozen – they might flower a little later than those planted earlier but should be fine.

It’s often the small things that give life that little frisson of pleasure. I hope you’re finding things to be cheerful about in the garden this winter?