Garden Care & Planning

It’s autumn and you’ve harvested the last of the summer berries, apples and plums it seems like a dormant time for your garden as you wonder what to do next. But just as the flower beds and fruit trees are surrendering to the change of season, you’re gardening care and planning for the rest of the year is really just beginning.

Now is the time to decide what to grow, what seeds and bulbs to buy and what to plan in order to make your garden stand out and stay healthy throughout winter and spring.

If you want a beautiful, radiant garden full of flower-blooming spring flowers like tulips and crocuses and tasty vegetables and fruit in the summer, then now is the time to start preparing and planning out what to grow.

Flower bulbs:

Spring flower bulbs to look out for include daffodils, tulips, narcissi, crocuses, hyacinths, alliums, snowdrops and freesias. Here are some flower planting and planning tips:

• Plant spring flower bulbs like crocuses, daffodils, narcissi and snowdrops in borders and patio pots or around trees for dazzling clolour schemes when spring arrives.

• Indoor bulbs such as hyacinths can be planted now so that they flower in time for Christmas to form part of your decoration.

• Tulips can be planted towards the start of winter in October or November, so keep an eye out for attractive tulip varieties and colours from deep reds to yellows and golds and plan a charming tulip bed.

• Spend time shopping for unusual bulbs of varying colours to create patterned and contrasting flower patches and borders.

Grow your own:

Autumn is also a good time to start propagating some of your existing plants to encourage them to root. One way of doing this is by taking a shoot from the plant, making a cut in the shoot and planting this into the soil.

Preparation is key, so why not get a head start on your weeding now before you start planting and ensure the soil is fit for purpose by digging in compost and manure.

If you’ve enjoyed a summer of tasty fruit and vegetables picked fresh from the garden, or would like to start growing your own, it’s not too late to try your hand at home-grown fruit and veg. If planted now, summer fruit crops such as gooseberries and raspberries will produce plenty of berries at harvest time.

What to grow:

In early September sow lettuce, salad leaves and Chinese cabbages, as well as vegetables and culinary herbs like endive and winter spinach directly outside

• As a rule of thumb, stick to low growing vegetables for planting in autumn as these are easy to protect from frost.

• Sow broad been seeds, plant garlic bulbs and onion sets now so that they are ready for spring.

• Don’t let cooler temperatures get you down; use cloche covers or frames to protect seedlings and try planting in pots.

• Plant bare-rooted gooseberries and raspberries bushes in sunny, sheltered patches or if you already have a fruit berry bush, prune it back during the autumn and winter months.

General garden care

Autumn is also ideal for some garden TLC and tidy-up to ensure the health of your plants and the working order of garden machinery and tools over the winter.

Help tender perennials such as Chrysanthemums stay alive during the frosty months by taking cuttings and storing them indoors or in greenhouses over winter and replant in spring. For stronger plants that can survive Jack Frost, try adding a little insulation in their beds such as hay or straw. A combination of using frost protection products and old gardening tricks such as digging mulch into the beds will help protect against hard frost.

A general tidy-up, following the natural life-cycle of your garden will do the world of good. Collect dead plant material such as stems and foliage (not weeds!) and add to your compost heap so that nothing goes to waste and give your soil a good once-over using soil improvement products and by digging in mulch and compost.