As the sun dips lower, things get busy in the garden again. The autumn harvest needs gathering in, and late summer flowers are at their best – so gear up and get stuck in to this month’s jobs around the garden.
General tasks:
Clean the greenhouse after clearing spent tomato and cucumber plants, washing the glass thoroughly and disinfecting benches and pots.
Feed established lawns with low-nitrogen feed to encourage plenty of root growth ahead of winter.
Ornamental garden:
Keep up with dead-heading, removing faded blooms to encourage flowerbuds to keep coming until the first frosts.
Plant paperwhite narcissi in pots of free-draining compost ready to force for sweetly-scented flowers this Christmas.
Plant new shrubs, trees and perennials while the soil is still warm and rain is likely, so they’re well established before winter sets in.
Kitchen garden:
Direct sow hardy salad leaves to harvest through autumn and winter, choosing cold-tolerant varieties like ‘Winter Density’ lettuce, mibuna and pak choi.
Bring pots of basil indoors and pop on a sunny windowsill where they’ll stay productive for weeks longer.
Plant Japanese onion sets to overwinter as seedlings and get a head start in spring, giving you bulbs weeks earlier than spring-sown varieties.
