Sep
To celebrate 100 year of gardening expertise, Palmers Garden Centre are offering readers 100 essential tips to get the best from their garden each season. This time, get ready for a cooler climate.
- Hollow tine and scarify your lawn to improve drainage and remove thatch.
- Trim back tall perennials once they have finished flowering.
- Remove top third of rose growth to prevent wind rock.
- Take cuttings of more tender perennials e.g. Penstemons.
- Autumn is mother natures preferred time for planting.
- September is the ideal time to plant up your autumn pansies and violas.
- Split dormant herbaceous plants and replant immediately.
- Lift and protect tender plants such as Dahlias after first frost.
- As leaves fall, rake up and collect to compost down.
- But do not compost leaves that are diseased, e.g. black spot on rose.
- Protect more exotic plants from the frost e.g. tree ferns, bananas.
- Rush to the garden centre to get a wide range of spring bulbs.
- Plant your spring flowering bulbs in the autumn; always leave tulips until November.
- Collect seeds from plants you wish to propagate next year.
- Upgrade your bird feeding equipment to treat them this winter!
- Disinfect your greenhouse to get rid of the nasty critters which appear over winter.
- Clean out your bird boxes, ready for the spring.
- Give your lawn a boost with an autumn feed.
- Lag your water pipes to protect from bursting in the frost.
- Reorganise any beds and borders if they are not up to scratch.
- Don’t let windfall apples go to waste, they make fantastic apple juice!
- Prune apples and pears once the leaves have dropped.
- November is the ideal time to plan and plant your soft fruit beds.
- It is also the perfect time to consider planting up bare root roses.
- Clean, sharpen and oil all your tools, ready for next spring!
Palmers- offering expert gardening advice for 100 years.
St John, Enderby, Leicester LE19 2BS 0116 286 3323
Although it’s not Summer any more, here are Palmers tips for the sunny season.
