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October
Now is the time to divide those perennials which might be getting a little too large for their space. Use the healthy plant around the edges and discard the centre for a vibrant and happy plant next year. Soon it will be time to lift Dahlias (below) but avoid doing this until you see the first signs of frost especially if there is still plenty of growth and buds on plants.
Put pots next to the walls of the house to avoid frost damage or better still take them in to your garage, greenhouse or shed for the winter. Wrap up precious pots that might be liable to crack in heavy frost – I use bubble wrap for this and usually do it around the end of the month. If you clipped Hebe bushes earlier after summer flowering you may be rewarded with another show of flowers now. Certainly we are currently enjoying a wonderful display of Asters and chrysanthemums and these should go on for a while yet. We need to be thinking of Spring this month and it is a good time to start planning your pots and spring borders. Wallflowers will be making their appearance in garden centres, - a really useful plant I think - put daffodils and narcissi in between the wallflower plants for a riot of colour. Keep roses clipped but just take off the dead wood and reduce height to prevent wind rock. Personally, I never fully prune roses until winter has passed. I prune hard again in spring after having taken mine down to about half their height in autumn and of course cutting out any black or deadened wood. © Reckless Gardener Magazine 2005 - 2006 Mill Cottage New Media |
It is hard to believe that it is October already - the spring & summer seem to have disappeared in a motorway-like blurr - here we are again looking at our autumnal colours, thinking about the winter and dare I say it Christmas & perhaps planning some new ideas for the garden for next year.
Several of mine are still flowering and so I will delay cutting them down until I have to. I am intending to leave some of them in the ground this winter as an experiment. I may be pushing my luck, but with warmer winters I feel it is certainly worth the risk and we shall see what happens.Buy Online |