Autumn is here, and it’s time to get busy in the garden so your outside space stays looking its best through the coming months.
Pruning and Planting Essentials
Prune established apple and pear trees, ensuring the centre of the tree is open so air can circulate and sunlight can reach all the branches. Prune deciduous shrubs now, but leave evergreens until spring. Roses will benefit from being pruned down to around half their size—burn any fallen leaves from rose shrubs to protect against fungal disease.
This is also an ideal time to plant new roses so they can get well established over winter and produce a gorgeous display of blooms in October. Always use plenty of good compost around the planting hole and water well. There is a large variety of roses to choose from, and popular reliable varieties to try are: ‘Iceberg’, ‘Double Delight’, ‘Candy Stripe’, ‘Blue Moon’, ‘Satchmo’, and ‘Bride’s Dream’.
Dig plenty of compost, manure, and leaf mould into bare soil to add important nutrients. Overcrowded clumps of summer flowering perennials like Hemerocallis, Arums, Iris, Cannas, Dietes, and Agapanthus can be lifted and divided. Cut the foliage back once the plant is replanted.
Colour and Compost for the Cooler Months
Some colour is always welcome in a winter garden, so plant a few pansies, violas, primroses, petunias, nemesias, and osteospermums to brighten borders, containers, and hanging baskets.
Take cuttings of plants such as fuchsias, heliotropes, and daisies. Collect seeds from zinnias, cosmos, gaillardias, hollyhocks, and cleomes for planting in the next season.
Now is a good time to start a compost heap if you don’t already have one. Homemade compost is the best natural way to feed your soil, adding all the nutrients needed for healthy plants. Healthy soil produces strong, healthy plants. If space is limited, simply collect fallen leaves and spread them over the soil as mulch—this attracts earthworms, which enrich the soil with their castings.