Garden Design Tips - 7 Things to do in your garden right now

There are plenty of things to get on with in your garden in the Autumn.  Some people don't like to tidy up too much, preferring to leave piles of leaves and hollow stems on plants for insects to shelter in over winter.

However, there are some things that you can do that won't discourage insects and will give your garden a head start on next year.

1.  Plant new shrubs and hedging – autumn is the best time to put in plants.  They are not quite yet dormant so will start to establish whilst there is a little warmth in the soil.  Then in spring they have a headstart and will grow on more quickly than spring plantings.

 

2.       Plant spring bulbs – late winter and early spring are dull times in the garden.  Plant Snowdrops, Anemone blanda, Crocus, Narcissus, Tulips and Alliums for a show that will start in December and go on into the early summer.

3.       Tidy the lawn – scarify and aerate the lawn. Give it an autumn feed – there are different types of feed for spring and autumn, make sure you choose the right one.  Apply moss killer and lawn weedkiller then fill any resulting bald patches by sprinkling on a bit of topsoil and some new grass seed.

4.       Prune shrubs apart from those that flower on the current year’s growth such as Forsythia. Remove dead branches and any that are crossing.  Reduce the size of the plants to keep them in their allotted position and make sure they don’t encroach on paths or neighbour’s gardens.

5.       Prune Wisteria. Remove all long, whippy shoots as these will weaken the plant.  Prune all side shoots off the main framework of the plant back to about 4 buds.  Remove all dead growth and, if necessary, reduce the overall size of the plant to keep it in its allotted space.  You will get many more flowers if you prune the plant quite hard, but do not remove all the flower buds – the fat growths you can see in the leaf junctions with the stem.

6.       Turn your compost over and add some cardboard.  Too much green waste, especially grass, will make the compost slimy and smelly, adding shredded cardboard will prevent this.  You can also enrich the compost by adding some stable manure from any local yard - the best compost comes from well=rotted stable manure when the horses are bedded on shavings. 

7.       Take some hardwood cuttings.  Especially useful for plants that might not make it through a hard winter.  Cut off a stem at the base of the plant.  Remove the soft growth tip and cut the stem into sections with a diagonal cut just above a bud.  Dig over a strip of garden and insert the diagonal cut ends of each cutting into the trench and firm the soil around each one.  Or, you can put them around the edge of a plastic pot filled with multi-purpose compost. Throw a piece of garden fleece over the cuttings when the temperature drops.

 

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