The tidy up around the garden is now well underway. Leaves are falling thick and fast and must be removed from lawns and borders so that they do not rot and smother the grass or any small plants that may be beneath them. The compost heaps are filled to the brim each week but seem to sink very quickly again – good news for next year’s soil conditioning mulch!
The allotment has done well this summer despite the hot weather and the winter crops of Leeks, Parsnips and greens are all looking good. I have been busy cutting down the tops of spent crops and taking down my runner bean frame so that it can be stored in the shed until I need it next year. This job alone makes the plot look tidier and less dejected.
Digging has started – a first for me as I usually have to leave it until after Christmas but the weather has been reasonable and the soil not too wet. I am adding all of the spent crop waste to the bottom of the trenches and burying them with soil. This includes any oversized courgettes and beetroots that missed the harvest for chutney making! All of this waste will break down to make organic matter and improve the soil, along with well rotted manure which I can get from a friend who keeps horses!
It’s time to plant my Tulips now that November is here and cutting back more of the perennials in the back garden has meant that there are some patches of bare earth visible for them. Although they are planted deeply and with grit added to the soil for drainage, they do not overwinter well in the second season, so I replant each year and treat them as I would bedding plants. This autumn I have also planted Wallflowers and Forget Me Nots for a bright spring welcome!
Some of my perennials have made huge clumps and the Asters were stunning through the autumn with their brightly coloured daisies that look so good in a vase as well as the borders. I have cut these down now and lifted some of the more congested clumps, dividing them up with two forks and replanting young, vigorous pieces in groups for a good display next year. There were plenty of pieces left over to give to friends, plant in the cutting garden and pot up to give to the village fetes next summer.
As the garden changes over the next few weeks to stark silhouettes once the last leaves are whipped from the trees by autumn gales, there are several plants that stand out. The feather duster like plumes of Miscanthus grass stand well above the clumps of slender leaves and will do so through the winter undamaged by gales – ideal for our windy front garden! The whole plant fades out to straw colours and can be pruned to the ground in January before the new growth starts. There are also plenty of evergreens to enjoy through the winter months along with the sweetly scented flowers of Viburnum and Sarcococca.
And soon, early spring bulbs will be making an appearance, their leaves shyly poking through the soil and sitting in suspended animation until the warmth of the first spring sunshine coaxes them into flower and another gardening year begins.
