It's time to get busy

In the autumn months your garden should be a hotbed of activity, as you can plant almost anything before the frost sets in and give yourself a headstart on 2006. Toby Musgrave reports...

Most gardening experts believe the next few months should be a very productive time, far from that seasonal break you may have envisaged. It is a chance to give lawns and beds a final tidy-up and put in the preparation to ensure that 2006 will be another flourishing year. So long as the ground is not waterlogged, you can keep planting right up until it becomes frozen and the sooner you pop your plants in, the longer they have to establish themselves for the remainder of this season. The better settled a plant is, the earlier it will 'get on with it' next year, and the better the growth will be.

This is of course the season for bulbs, so get out there and plant for a really good spring display next year, be it in beds, borders or naturalised in grass. If you are planning to plant bulbs in containers, remember to insulate them if we get a hard winter, otherwise the bulbs may freeze and die.

Insulating all planted containers is recommended if a heavy frost is forecast and although bubblewrap is not very pretty, it does the job a treat. You can also plant many summer flowering bulbs now too, but for those that don't like it wet, especially lilies, it's a good idea to start them in pots in a cold frame. Outdoor lilies, particularly L. candidum, should have no more than 5cm of soil above them. All other autumn-planted types, including most of the European and American species, should be covered with a depth of soil 2 1/2 times the bulb's height.

Most people have heard of the autumn flowering crocus but there is a much wider range of autumn flowering bulbs that can be used very effectively to bring a splash of unexpected colour to your garden. In some cases, they can even provide a very exotic form to the garden at a time of year when other plants are beginning to wind down.

Plant autumn flowering bulbs now and you will get a display late this year - but some will not come into their own until the coming year. Just think of it as a bit of forward planning!

"Plant autumn flowering bulbs now and you will get a display late this year - but some will not come into their own until the coming year. Just think of it as a bit of forward planning!"

Outdoors, bulbs look great if planted in beds and borders but are perhaps most dramatic if massed in informal drifts in a lawn, either drifts of separate bulb types, or a whole load of cultivars mixed together. Spacing between the bulbs should be about 5cm. Once they have flowered, give them a feed but do not cut back the leaves. This way you will have a wonderful display every year. Once planted and fed annually, they require no more care and will naturally increase in numbers over the years.

Put simply, at the moment you can plant pretty much anything that is hardy. Containerised trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials can all go in as long as you prepare the hole properly with a dose of well-rotted compost and a good mulch of finest horse manure. This may sound a little strange but if it is a dry autumn, don’t forget to water the garden. Just so long as a plant isn’t dormant, that is to say it hasn’t died back in the case of perennials, and it hasn’t lost its leaves in the case of deciduous trees and shrubs, it will be photosynthesising and therefore losing water. Evergreens will do this all year, irrespective of season.

It’s also possible to get some hardy annuals on the go now. Again, it may sound odd, but this is a really good way to get an early display of annuals because instead of sowing next year and waiting for them to germinate and get going, you can sow them now to allow them to germinate and get settled in. Then over winter you’ll have small plants that are just biding their time until the soil gets warmer and the days get longer.

Where to buy your bulbs
Most garden centres will stock a good range - opt for the largest, plumpest looking bulbs and do not buy those which look damaged. For a wider range, try a specialist bulb seller, such as:

Broadleigh Garden specialises in bulbs and is based at Bishops Hull near Taunton. Call 01823 286231 or visit www.broadleighbulbs.co.uk

Jacques Amand is a bulb specialist in North London. Their telephone number is 020 8420 7110

John Dyer’s monthly tips

Look After Your Greenhouse:
Try to avoid sudden fluctuations in temperature by ventilating with care and keeping draughts to a minimum. Water should be given sparingly and splashes avoided so that humidity is kept low. Too much moisture in the air will encourage botrytis. Keep an eye on the glass itself, which soon becomes dirty. If the opportunity arises, give it a clean to let in as much light as possible.

Start Digging:
As land becomes vacant in the vegetable plot, a start can be made to digging when ground conditions are good. Remember to leave the ground rough to allow maximum penetration by frost.

Protect Strawberries:
Strawberries potted for forcing early next year should be given protection against frost. Plunge the pots in sand or leaf mould or stand in a cold frame.

Top-Dress Fruit:
Where heavy crops of fruit have been carried on fruit trees, it is a good idea to apply a top-dressing of compost. Where there is a low-level graft union, carefully remove some of the existing soil first so that the surface level is not built up to a point where the scion could take root. Cover with a mulch of manure.

Plant Biennials:
Biennials such as foxglove, Canterbury bells and honesty can be planted where they are to flower next year.

Asparagus Beds:
Cut back asparagus foliage and carefully clean the bed of weed and any self-set plants, before applying a layer of manure topping with soil or good garden compost.

Prune Gooseberries:
Once the leaves have fallen, gooseberries can be pruned. On young bushes, cut back the leading shoots by about half to encourage growth. On older bushes, the laterals can be cut back depending on their vigour.