Staking plants - a boring job that we kick ourselves for not doing
Do you put off supporting your plants until it's too late?
Let’s get practical - it’s time for some straightforward no-nonsense gardening advice:
In this week’s Ask Me Anything, I realised that this question
Can you share a bit about plant-support in the garden? Which plants need it, when you add it to the garden, what would happen if you didn’t and so on?
needed a much longer answer and some illustration, and I’m also sure you have much to contribute to this.
As far as timing is concerned, in my experience whenever I look at a plant and think "Hmm, I should stake that in a few weeks' time', then the reality is that I really should have staked it right there and then. But every time, I leave it just a bit too late. I look at the growing stems and I admire them, marvelling as ever in the wonders of Nature and the Wheel of the Year, that reassuring cycle of everything which reminds us that there’s light around the corner. I gaze at the green of it all, and I think to myself that it all looks quite sturdy, and that nothing will make it collapse. That we won’t have winds as strong as last year. That the rain won’t be quite as heavy. That plant supports aren’t pretty. That even if I do stake, I’ll wait till the plants are just a teeny bit taller.
And then, overnight, it’s too late.