Your soil is now warm enough to encourage root growth and stays consistently moist so is the perfect time for planting most perennials, shrubs and trees. With bareroot season near, think about taking advantage of cheaper plants sold this way.
Now is prime time to reap your produce rewards, but also think of the coming months. Homemade soups or frozen vegetables from your plot are a real treat in the stark months ahead. Do what you can to store, preserve, freeze and dehydrate, and even think about hanging flowers for drying for displays like the team do here at Clumber.
Your earlier flowering perennials may need tidying about now. We like to leave the upright seedheads such as Phlomis, Erigeron and Eryngium as structure in the garden, but the soggy leaves of perennials such as Day Lilly could be trimmed and added to compost. Also take final notes for any edits now.
If you haven’t already, it’s worth buying your bulbs. Garden centres should hold stock, but the best ones will sell out quickly. Planting a few bulbs now pays back tenfold in the spring after a cold winter. You will be so glad you took the time when those first few shoots emerge.
It’s a time of abundance in the veggie patch and orchards. Another “crop” are the deciduous leaves that will be falling soon. Collect these with a lawn mower or rake and add them to compost, rot down in bags or build a corral (an open pen made with chicken wire and stakes). You will create some wonderful, free soil-conditioner that is second to none.
Although the days are becoming shorter, you’ll have chance to enjoy the low light at the start and end of the day, a time when the garden truly looks at its best with long shadows and warm light.
Your soil is now warm enough to encourage root growth and stays consistently moist so is the perfect time for planting most perennials, shrubs and trees. With bareroot season near, think about taking advantage of cheaper plants sold this way.
Now is prime time to reap your produce rewards, but also think of the coming months. Homemade soups or frozen vegetables from your plot are a real treat in the stark months ahead. Do what you can to store, preserve, freeze and dehydrate, and even think about hanging flowers for drying for displays like the team do here at Clumber.
Your earlier flowering perennials may need tidying about now. We like to leave the upright seedheads such as Phlomis, Erigeron and Eryngium as structure in the garden, but the soggy leaves of perennials such as Day Lilly could be trimmed and added to compost. Also take final notes for any edits now.
If you haven’t already, it’s worth buying your bulbs. Garden centres should hold stock, but the best ones will sell out quickly. Planting a few bulbs now pays back tenfold in the spring after a cold winter. You will be so glad you took the time when those first few shoots emerge.
It’s a time of abundance in the veggie patch and orchards. Another “crop” are the deciduous leaves that will be falling soon. Collect these with a lawn mower or rake and add them to compost, rot down in bags or build a corral (an open pen made with chicken wire and stakes). You will create some wonderful, free soil-conditioner that is second to none.
Although the days are becoming shorter, you’ll have chance to enjoy the low light at the start and end of the day, a time when the garden truly looks at its best with long shadows and warm light.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/clumberpark
Imagery courtesy of J. Mather.
