Homes & gardens
AUTUMN… taking stock & planning ahead!
Many of us — not just gardeners — are remarking on how quickly this year is passing. Now it’s autumn and gardeners can either look on it as a gloriously golden time when they harvest the produce of their labours, and have the fun of planning for next year, or a time that is simply devoted to making everything tidy in preparation for winter. The former is far more satisfying.
Early autumn can be warm and sunny — as it was this year — and it is often still possible to dine al fresco. Make the very best of eating outdoors — it is worth moving pots and tubs to favourite sitting-out locations where they will give the most pleasure.
Now is the time to plant spring-
flowering bulbs. All gardeners have firm favourites they plant every autumn, but it is also fun to experiment with new varieties. Bulbs are generally very tolerant in regard to position but check packets for instructions before buying, and select for scent as well as colour. Most bulbs do very well in containers but mixing different varieties can be risky because they won’t necessarily all flower at the same time and the results could be disappointingly patchy.
The packets may well indicate
flowering in the same month, but that could mean the beginning, the middle or the end of the month. The scent of wallflowers is amazing, especially after a light shower of rain, and the vast range of colours available
makes erysimum perfect for beds, borders, pots and tubs. The flowers last a long time, but once they die off the leaves remain attractive. Wallflowers are sold separately in pots but the cheapest way to buy them is as bunches of bare root plants — terrific value for money.
Mid-autumn, before frosts, and mid- spring, before the sun is hot, are the best times for sowing a new lawn from
flood? Does it need to be a tough patch of grass for children and animals to play — or is it a grass path that will be in regular use? In those cases one of the general purpose mixes will be the most suitable. If aiming for a billiard-table effect, “fine lawn” mixes will be the most appropriate. One very important thing about seed mixes — the cheapest seed blends may include a fair number of weeds and so it is worth paying that little bit extra.
The availability of fresh water is crucial to wildlife throughout the year. Water quickly becomes contaminated by falling leaves and other debris in the autumn and so cleaning birdbaths and other containers, and then refilling with fresh water every day, will make an important contribution.
Still on the subject of wildlife, not that many years ago gardens were virtually razed to the ground as part of the seasonal tidy-up for the winter. That changed as more and more gardeners
seed or for repairing and patching an existing one. Warm, damp soil is ideal and germination will then take about 10 days.
Selecting the right seed depends on
how the lawn is going to be used and it is also important to consider the location. Shady or in full sun most of the time? Well drained or tending to
realised they could benefit wildlife in a number of small but significant ways — a small area of hedge allowed to grow “wild” to provide shelter during the winter months, a pile of leaves left in an out-of-the-way corner, seedheads left intact and some windfall apples left on the ground. Gardeners will have lots of ideas of their own and in no time at all an area can become a wildlife haven.
Editorial supplied by Pat Crawford for Hadlow College. Mid Kent Living 59
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