Weather or not (From Crewe Guardian)

Weather or not

3:06pm Wednesday 10th January 2007 in Lifestyle By Staff reporter

Whatever the weather, there will always be more. It's something we get more than our fair share of in Cheshire and it is perhaps the one thing that occupies most of our conversations here at Tatton Park.

It appears that if predictions are correct, then 2007 will see more of it than 2006 and subsequent years will see more and more. By more of it I mean more change in it. Of course, it always changes but the question is how reliably we can predict change.

The weather plays such an intrinsic part in what we do and when we do it as gardeners. As such, it is no wonder we become obsessed with it. We always wereand always will be.

But it is apparent to gardeners in 2007 that our winters and springs are very, very different than the winters and springs of, say the 1860s.

You could rightly argue, of course, that there have been many changes since then. But when the gardening manuals of 1905, 1925 and 1952 all tell you to do the same calendar of operations as the 1860s, then it is apparent that the climate hadn't altered enough for these professional gardeners to think it worth mentioning.

Mr Beeton's book of garden management of 1860 writes of December: "Although the thermometer often sinks below freezing, the frost seldom lingers as the wind and rain abound."

It is the unpredictability of the arrival of winter that impacts most heavily on gardens such as Tatton

Simon Tetlow, Tatton Park garden team leader

The wind and rain did abound' in 2006, but there wasn't a day of frost. The 1925 edition of the Gardeners Assistant states: "In December, advantage should be made of all those frosty days to distribute manure to all areas."

The action of the frost is not only useful for wheeling manure around the garden. If you have diligently adhered to the gardening calendar, the soil should have been roughly dug and thrown into ridges - especially clay soils. The action of frost on soil heaves and breaks down soils and does more good than any cultivations we can do as gardeners, aiding drainage and releasing valuable nutrients. It also has the effect of killing many pests and diseases, clearing ground of bacteria, fungus and insect pests.

Valuable crops like rhubarb and seakale also require frost to start the growing process and to effectively force the crops early for the table - they need several days of hard frost.

It is the unpredictability of the arrival of winter that impacts most heavily on gardens such as Tatton.

It is very likely that it will be gardening and the growing of our own produce, whatever the weather, that will contribute most to addressing our over-consumption and therefore climate change.

So whatever the weather, get out, dig, sow and pick.