Gardening Notes

October

• Preserve excess produce i.e. pickling, jamming, etc.
• Plant tulips.
• Lift tender perennials.
• Clean down and disinfect your greenhouse, standing the plants outside. Clean the outside of the roof in particular with a long, soft brush, to maximise the winter light levels inside.
• As light levels fall on window sills, keep houseplants rather drier, to slow down growth during the winter.
• When moving evergreens after such a dry season, throw several buckets of water on them a few days beforehand to ensure the rootball is moist.
• Remember to close down the greenhouse at night, but open it wide in the morning to prevent soaring temperatures and disease.
• Making new borders next year on clay soil? Dig them over roughly now, adding old compost as you go.
• Complete the trimming of evergreen hedges and topiary soon now, to give you some crisp winter lines.