Winter is a busy season for any gardener and there’s plenty to do this November and December — from putting together a miniature garden to planting winter flowers and prepping your vegetable garden.

The ‘magical’ miniature garden

Miniature gardens can, if well-designed, be sheer, unadulterated magic. They are relatively simple to make although you can make them as complicated as your artistic streak demands.

What to plant and grow this winter season

Basically, a miniature garden is created in an extremely small space — in a shallow plant pot base, for instance — and is designed to catch excessive water from heavily watered pots. The aesthetics that it adds to your garden is a bonus.

There are no restrictions on what you can include in the miniature garden but the current trend is to include very small-sized succulents, interesting cacti, colourful yet compact grasses, creeping plants such as thyme, and whatever other low-growing, miniature plants you have on hand.

The ‘magic’ ingredients are purely a matter of personal choice. Add to the garden whatever objects catch your eye in the bazaar or even in a children’s toy shop. Fairies, toadstools, dwarfs, dinosaurs, sparkling balls of plastic, glass, painted pottery and broken jewellery can add some glitz and character to the miniature garden. Let your imagination run wild and create your own fairytale fantasy in the backyard.

Flowers for November

There are many flowers to plant in winter — from sweet peas (of which you can never plant too many) to larkspur (available in shades of blue, pink, white and cerise) — that will charm you for weeks. Also easy and rewarding to grow are tagetes, Queen Anne’s lace, as many different kinds of poppies as you can lay your hands on, ageratum, alyssum, candytuft, Virginia stocks, sweet Williams, sweet sultan, mimulus, clarkia, dragon flowers, wallflowers, violas, bellis, hollyhocks, salvia, and cornflowers.

Go heavy on fragrance this time and treat yourself to a colourful range of Dutch hyacinths — apricot, white, cream, soft pink, rose, crimson, yellow and blue ones for a start — and every species of narcissus you come across. Otherwise, daffodils dazzle and crocus are a rockery delight, tulips are undeniably gorgeous if short-lived, and grape hyacinths are perfect for pots. Sparaxis, anemones, allium, Dutch iris, tall iris, and miniature iris are also options. The list is endless. Of course, in the end it all depends on what new delights garden stores have decided to introduce and keep in stock.

However, the one flower you must absolutely plant this November is Freesia.

One of the most popular cut flowers in existence, Freesia is an incredibly fragrant addition to any garden and they are quite at home being grown in pots and containers too. A single stem of these harbingers of spring will perfume an entire room and a bouquet of Freesias will do the same for the whole house. To boot, these flowers are available in a wide range of colours — you can find them in shades of white, cream, golden yellow, blue, red and purple.

Usually grown from imported corms — which are available in gardening stores right now — Freesias are well worth the expense.

The corms should be planted, pointed side upwards, just an inch or so deep in good quality, well-draining, compost or soil. Germination may take time; however, as long as the growing medium is kept slightly damp, they will eventually shoot up and produce gorgeous flowers in early spring. If you don’t want to opt for the corm method, Freesia seeds can also be planted. For this method though, flowering will take eight months.

What to add to your vegetable patch and herb garden

Seeds to sow this month include the following: winter and spring cabbages — try some ‘pointed’ cabbage such as ‘Greyhound’ or ‘Wheeler’s imperial’ which will melt in your mouth — along with cannonball-hard red cabbages which are ideal for salads and pickles.

You can also go for creamy and purple-toned cauliflowers, purple-sprouting and/or large-headed broccoli. And calabrese broccoli is the way to go if you’re a fan of this vegetable.

For the winter season, the options are dizzying: one can also grow spinach, pak choi, Chinese cabbage, chop suey greens (a kind of chrysanthemum), giant red mustard, mizuna, curly green kale or interestingly ‘blistered’ blue Italian kale with extra long leaves, radish can also be grown. And let’s not forget the black winter radish (which has black skin and is hot and white on the inside).

If opting for Swiss chard, try to plant the varieties with brightly coloured stems of red, pink and yellow — these vegetables will not only make your garden look stunning but also brighten up salads.

One can also never go amiss with spring onions, peas, broad beans, turnips, beetroots, carrots, potatoes, lettuce, celery, endive and onions. Tomatoes are also an option — but they can only be grown in areas south of Lahore and the plants will need some protection if the nights are chilly.

For the herb garden there’s plenty to choose from: Arugula is an all-year-round wonder, parsley, borage with either blue or white flowers, lemon balm, watercress, aniseed, coriander, dill, chamomile, chervil, chives, garlic chives, calendulas, nasturtiums, marjoram, oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary, lavender and as many different kinds of mint as you can find.

If you happen to reside in Karachi, you might like to give ‘out of season’ basil a chance as various readers have reported that they have been able to grow this versatile herb over the winter as well as the summer months.

Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. The writer does not respond directly by email. Emails with attachments will not be opened.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, November 6th, 2016