Gardening

Edition seven - October 2006  

Moles in your garden? Here's some advice from the RHS..

The next four editions of Gardener`s Diary will be in a slightly different format. While the days are short and the dormant garden is preparing itself for the spring, I will be chatting generally about gardening and in February will resume "Jobs for the month" and the "Spotlight" section.

Autumn and winter have never been my favourite times of year, mainly because of the long dark nights, but now, being in the autumn of my own life, I am learning to love these particular seasons and not to wish my precious time away.

I have been mindful of my own increasing limitations in the garden; Gone are the times when I could move mountains -  nowadays it`s more likely to be mole hills.  When we moved to our new house in Nottinghamshire several years ago, with just a half acre of overgrown field for a back garden, it therefore made sense to design a user friendly area, with ease of maintenance and mobility.  We edged the vast lawn with pavers which enables the grass to be mown with the tractor very quickly, with only a few edges to trim. The borders are mainly planted with trees and shrubs for ease of maintenance, and difficult varying levels have been replaced with gentle paved slopes, just in case... The front garden has been designed to give borders planted with mainly  evergreen shrubs, trees and flowers, no lawn, just the parking and path areas. So, although I have a large garden and a husband who dislikes gardening, it`s not all hard work...

Batten down the hatches

October is a really busy month in the garden, preparing for the long winter months ahead.  It is time to cut back perennials that have finished flowering, remove summer bedding plants, take out any dead growth of shrubs and prune them lightly to make them look neat over winter. Finally, give the borders a good hoe, to make them look well tended. 

Fancy trying to make a compost heap?

Prepare your lawn for winter now with an autumn feed which will encourage a deeper longer root system, and harden off growth to help the grass withstand the colder weather. You will notice the lawn going a dark green fairly soon after application.

If you are using a lawn spreader for the job, ensure you do it on a day when the lawn is not wet with dew, otherwise the wetness will clog up the spreader.. Apply the feed three days after and three days before the next cut. Do read the instructions carefully to ensure you keep pets off the area until it's dry.

Leaves will be falling this month. Sweep them up before they collect in a slippery heap and someone falls over them and gets hurt..

Once you`ve cleared away the debris, your garden will probably look a bit sad, bleak and colourless, so nip down to the garden centre to buy some pots of winter plants, already planted up and in flower, to dot around the garden. Or plant up your own containers with the special collections of winter plants you'll find for sale. Try window boxes too - plastic or wood, painted with Cuprinol Garden Shades, underplanted with all sorts of beautiful spring bulbs and topped off with trailing ivies, evergreen herbs and heathers. It`s surprising how a bit of bright colour will cheer you in the winter months. At this time of year I usually treat myself to some colourful cyclamens to dot around the house.. They like it here and flower forever..

Check that tree ties on young trees are secure and not too tight..

Don`t forget to put out food for the birds, either on a bird table or in feeders, and keep them topped up throughout the winter as they will come to rely on you feeding them,  especially in the really cold weather when supplies are short... They'll be grateful for water too!

Finally when you`ve put your feet up at night, relaxing with a glass of wine in front of the blazing log fire, you can browse through the seed catalogues that have been delivered, and plan next year`s summer display, with perhaps some extra perennials.  My all time favourite seed company is Thompson and Morgan, who regularly send out beautiful comprehensive catalogues, take seed orders on-line and accept credit card payments.