Garden tasks and thoughts

Hi everybody, Hugh here, fair to say I haven’t blogged in a wee while, so welcome back. 

I thought I might share this write up I did for a local group of learning gardeners, who asked what should they be doing about summer/ autumn colour in their gardens at this time of year. 

Containers and hanging baskets:

Continue to keep you summer colour going for as long as possible. This can include continuing to give them some feeding, watering and regular dead-heading of flowers along with removing any dead or diseased leaves. 

Once the baskets and containers have gone past their best, rescue any tender plants that you can overwinter (such as geraniums) and compost the rest. Make sure to use fresh compost when planting up with autumn/ winter colour. Once the baskets have been planted, for the first couple of weeks at least, place them into a bright sheltered spot on the patio or similar to allow the plants to knit in and grow, before moving them to their final positions. During winter, particularly with hanging baskets, ensure you take them down when the weather is very cold and windy.

Spring bulbs:

Continue to plant spring bulbs, typically twice their own depths, with plenty of good compost and organic fertizilizer, for a wonderful show of colour next year. 

Summer/ autumn flowering shrubs, roses and herbaceous plants:

Continue enjoying the colour while it lasts, however once these plants finish flowering they can be trimmed and tidied back, removing spent flower heads and cutting back stems where appropriate. I tend to leave a couple of small piles of clippings and twigs, in the backs of my flower beds, particularly of native plants, for insects to shelter in during colder months. This can reap benefits in encouraging the beneficial garden friendlies to stay with us over winter and then to emerge in the spring and go to work on those that are less desireable and that damage our plants. Of course do keep an eye out for slugs and snails, even at this time of year, and relocate them away from your more susceptable plants ... preferably a couple of miles away ... Lol

House plants:

Continue to water care for as normal, checking them for watering at least once per week, and feedinging them once every two or three weeks with a propriety houseplant food. As we begin to turn on our house central heating, maybe consider spraying house plant foliage with some tepid water to counteract the dry air the heating produces. Of course be aware of plants sitting on radiators over summer ... a relocation at this time of year for these select plants is very timely !!

Garden Planning:

During these times of increased restrictions we may find ourselves more indoors, so it can be a good time to generate 'wish lists' of items and themes we'd like to include in our garden next year/ over the next few years. In this day and age, you can't beat going looking on the likes of Pinterest or Instagram (or indeed having a good nose in some of those lovely gardening magazines) and looking to see what others are doing, to help generate ideas and get us thinking and dreaming. Don't be too intimidated by the wonderful photos and pictures you see, remember that people have also had their gardening trials and errors too, and like us all, have learned from mistakes. Instead, build a picture of where you'd like to take your garden next year and enjoy this early planning stage of brainstorming lots of colour and garden interest !!

As always, if you have any gardening questions of queries, please ask.

Best of luck with your gardening endeavours, whatever you get up to. 

All the best, stay safe,

Hugh