gardening blog
Some people may think that as summer is over, the garden is losing its cheerfulness and its draw and so gardening comes to an end. In fact, the opposite is true. October is one of the busiest gardening months, so for those of you who are still learning to navigate the gardening year, I’ve written this blog to give you a few pointers. Tidy Up One-off tidy-ups will be in demand with gardening businesses right now, but if you were to do your own, what should and shouldn’t you do? The most obvious thing to tackle is weeds. This is a good time to catch those weeds you haven’t got round to – a common observation is that weeds never seem to stop growing even when other plants do! I’ve noticed dandelions that I scraped off a few weeks ago (where I can’t get to the tap roots) are now looking rather lush again. Pull up weeds by hand or dig them out if necessary. You can lightly fork over the soil as you’re doing this, but I’ll come back to soil at the end of this blog. The next thing is knowing what to do about all your perennials. Perennials are the flowering plants that come up year after year that are not woody, e.g. lupins as opposed to lavenders which are small shrubs. Many perennials can and even should be cut back after flowering. With the example of the Scabious in the photograph, I will cut off all the old flowering stems to about 10cms and leave the new leaves that are already showing. Leaving some stem provides a bit of protection over winter, but also helps you to remember where the plant is! Some plants have a time when you can’t see them at all but the crown is still there under the soil surface, waiting to emerge into leaf next spring. The exception with perennials perhaps, is those that can provide some interest over winter in terms of structure with their attractive seed heads, such as the Echinops in the photo at the bottom of the page. These look great if we ever get a hoar frost, but they also provide food for birds. In tidying up a garden in autumn, there are a few things that are best not tidied up: any plants bearing berries; plants such as ivies (see photo below) or sedums that are still flowering; not all leaves; and lawns, which if you cut at all should now be left longer – to at least 5cms high. These features in your garden are all beneficial to wildlife. Ivy flowers well into November and so provides nectar for insects which are still around. And birds like blackbirds and thrushes will love hunting around on your lawn for leatherjackets, insects and earthworms. You may not want to leave your border absolutely covered in leaves, but if you can leave some, again, it will benefit many invertebrates, or even vertebrates in the case of hedgehogs. You may have noticed where worms have pulled down leaves into their tunnels in the soil. If you have lots of leaf-fall you could have a go at making proper leaf mould. The leaves and debris that you DO need to put into your garden waste bin are those that have been under any shrubs with signs of disease, or plants that were mildewy in summer; it’s really important to clear up these leaves so that the disease is eradicated. Apart from over-tidying, there is one thing I would NOT do this month, and that is pruning. As a general rule the time for clipping and pruning most shrubs is past; for fruit trees and any deciduous trees you need to wait until they are dormant in the winter (I’m hoping to look at this more in a blog for November). Plan and Plant October is one of the best times for planting. Perennials, bulbs and seasonal bedding. The soil is still relatively warm, so if you have some plants you’ve been dying to get in, do it now before the harsher weather arrives. The roots will still be able to grow and the plant will establish itself before winter. It’s also a good time to split perennials if you have some that have grown too big or congested, e.g. hostas, cranesbills and primulas. The way to do it will depend on what plant it is – some can virtually be chopped through with a spade; others, like primulas, need slightly more gentle treatment. Many people go out and buy spring-flowering bulbs at this time of year. Or turn out their pots that were planted up with bulbs months ago. The rule of thumb with planting most bulbs is to plant them at 3 x the depth of the bulb, so for example, as a daffodil is a large bulb, it needs planting at 15cms deep. Lots of well-known gardeners always say to plant bulbs in ‘drifts’; this is because it looks more natural, and they do look better in groups rather than dotted here and there. I don’t have room in my garden for ‘drifts’ but I do try group-planting. If you like the idea of spring bulbs looking naturalised at the edges of your lawn you could try this: lift a patch of turf with a spade (by cutting an ‘H’ shape) and peel back to reveal the soil; break up the soil and plant bulbs the right distance apart and right depth; fold the turf back over making sure the cut edges butt up against each other again. Finish by treading the turf down well and watering. Then look forward to the display next spring! Other plants that can be planted now are seasonal bedding such as pansies, violas and polyanthus. These should be hardy varieties which will cope with the cold. You can even sow hardy annual flower seeds now and get a head start on next year. I have not covered everything that can be done in the garden in October – there’s a whole raft of things could be said about fruit and vegetables – the gathering in and winter planting, but I will finish with a tip or two about soil. Autumn is a brilliant time to mulch. That is putting on a layer of manure or compost over your tidied garden beds. If you apply manure now it has chance to break down over winter, rather than in spring when it can actually scorch young leaves. Manure and compost greatly improve soil structure. Unless your soil it terribly compacted you can either leave it entirely to worms and natural processes to break it up, or you can lightly fork it in the aid the process. By doing this you retain the soil structure, including all the hard work done by worms and other organisms which help aerate the soil. And even if you have old compost in pots or bags, never throw it away – it can all go on the garden – it is never wasted. When I was doing garden maintenance for other people I would always think, “What would I do if this was my garden?” and these are the things that I would do in October/November to prepare a garden for the coming months. Thank you for reading this blog – I hope that you have found it helpful, and if you have any questions please get in touch. And enjoy autumn – both in your garden and elsewhere!
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AuthorHi, I'm Jo. This is where I'll be posting my observations about my gardening life and gardening advice. Please enyoy! And if there's anything you would like to ask me about gardening I will try to answer your questions. Archives
March 2021
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