BBC Gardeners' World - Autumn Gardening

September may mark the end of summer, but there is plenty to celebrate: bumper harvests from ripening crops and vibrant colour from late summer flowers. The weather can still be warm, so apples and pears are ripening by the day. But it’s also time to tidy up and clear away spent crops and flowers. This is the month to start planting spring bulbs, divide perennials that have got too big for their space and take cuttings of tender plants. There are maincrop potatoes to dig up, the first parsnips can be picked and why not try saving some of your bean seeds for sowing in spring next year.

What to do this month

Autumn the horizon

Around the garden

Remove shading

It’s time to remove the shading from your greenhouse glazing. Maximise light now to keep plants in healthy growth because lower light levels at this time of year, together with lower temperatures, can encourage fungal rot to develop.

Wash off shade paint using either a soft cloth or a brush, and use a window blade to clear smears. Take down any shading from the inside and give it a clean before storing it.

The last greenhouse crops will ripen better with more light. The combination of improved light and ventilation will help prevent rot, but check regularly for any signs and remove rotten leaves.

Compost old summer bedding plants

Pull out and compost your bedding plants once they have gone over. Frost or prolonged spells of heat and dry weather will finish off annuals such as begonias, sweet peas and lobelias. If you are adding in quantities of soft green material to your compost heap, make sure that you also mix in some brown material, such as woody prunings, or ripped up pieces of cardboard.

10MINUTES & EASY OUT

Top dress your lawn

Adding top dressing to a lawn helps to level out the surface and improve drainage. You can buy ready-made top dressing or mix your own using compost, loam and fine grit.

 Before applying, make holes at intervals of about 15cm right across your lawn, using a garden fork or hollow-tined aeration tool. The holes help to relieve compaction and will receive the topdressing mix.

 Spread the top dressing thinly and evenly over your lawn using a lawn rake, so that it smooths out any dips and falls into the aeration holes. to for

Trim and tie in climbers

Prune your most vigorous climbing plants to control their shape but also to trim the softest shoots that could be damaged by early frosts.

Passion flowers, summer jasmine and kiwi fruits can be tackled now. Prune damaged stems or ones that might invade neighbouring plants.

Next, tie stems to their supports – to encourage more flowers, train them horizontally or as a fan.

Lastly, trim sideshoots with spent flowers or fruit.

Pick chrysanthemums

Cut stems of colourful chrysanthemum flowers now to give you long-lasting flower arrangements in the house. The harvesting season for garden chrysanthemums lasts until November. The multi-flowered early spray types are the first to flower.

 Wait until the centre flower of the spray is open then cut the stem out, leaving a stump of about 20cm.

 Plunge the stems in a deep bucket of water for an hour or two then recut the base and strip the lower leaves away.

In your flower patch

Divide perennialsborder

Divide vigorous clump-forming perennials now to rejuvenate their growth and fill borders for next year. Those that flowered earlier, such as alchemilla and geraniums, can be split now. Clear the ground of weeds before replanting.

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Lift the clump out of the border with a spade. Split it into pieces by pulling it apart, or driving a spade into the middle.

Plant the freshest sections back into the border at regular intervals, firm them in well and give them a good long soak.

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Keep snipping off blooms that have finished, to encourage more late flowers. Your tubs and baskets full of tender plants and annuals have another month or so to go.

Plant bulbs

Plant spring-flowering bulbs, such as narcissus, crocus or species tulips, into areas of lawn or under trees and shrubs where they can naturalise and make a permanent seasonal spring feature. Create the natural look by scattering bulbs randomly on the surface and plant them where they land. Make sure they are planted in a hole with a depth that measures 2-3 times the bulb’s height. Lift turf if needed, plant the bulbs then press the turf back. Correct planting depth helps them to flower reliably year after year.

Take cuttings of tender plants

Cut off strong non-flowering shoots of tender perennials to make cuttings now. Fuchsias, pelargoniums and argyranthemums are all easily propagated this way. Trim the cuttings just below a leaf joint and snip off the lower leaves. Keep just one or two leaves at the top. Insert them firmly around the edge of pots of seed and cuttings compost. Give them a soak, then put them in a closed bag or covered propagator to root. Air regularly and expect them to root in a few weeks.

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Container care

Reduce the amount of water you give containers this month.

 Growth is slowing and fungal rots are more likely, with lower light levels and a chill in the air.

 Improve airflow by removing old, damaged leaves then snip out the stems that have finished flowering. Look out for weeds hiding at the base of plants and remove those too.

Deadhead the strongest shoots to keep them flowering.

Growing your own

Collect leftover bean seeds

Save your own bean seeds for sowing the same varieties next spring. Leave pods on the plants until they go brown and dry. Hang them inside if it’s wet. Check the bean seeds and discard those with damage or bean weevil holes, then store them in paper envelopes to keep in a seed tin until next spring.

Cut the pods off plants when they have become dry and brittle, and the beans rattle inside. Keep their labels to avoid mixing dwarf and climbing varieties.

Open the pods – they’ll spill the beans easily into a tray where they can be gathered and put into labelled paper envelopes to store until next spring for sowing.

10MINUTES & EASY

Make sure the fruits of squash and pumpkin plants are exposed to sun to help them ripen. Stop the soil moisture from rotting the base by placing each squash or pumpkin on a tile or brick. away any that is shading the

Pull up your first parsnips

Start harvesting your parsnips. Pick every other one in the row to allow the remaining roots to get bigger before harvesting them much later in winter, when they’ll be sweeter. If you need the space to grow something such as a late crop of salad leaves or to plant onion sets, harvest all your parsnips. Remove the leaves and store the roots in boxes of sand somewhere cool and dark, ready to use during winter.

Plant a containergrown tree now while the soil is still warm and the roots can establish well before the winter. Soak the tree thoroughly in its pot orgroundMarch,Novembertotree,plantacoveringandstembarestem.fromkeepingaroundlayerspreadafterWaterplantingbeforeout.itagainplantingandathickofmulchthebase,itawaythewoodyProtectthebaseofthefromrabbitsdeerbyitwithguard.Ifyouwanttoabare-rootthebesttimedothisisfromtowhentheisn’tfrozenwaterlogged.

JOB OF THE MONTH

Plant a small tree

Tidy up strawberries

Cut off all the old leaves from your strawberry plants, leaving just the youngest ones in the middle. Next, remove the runners to prevent the main plants weakening. Weed through and pick out fruit debris because it can harbour fungal disease spores that will ruin next year’s crop. Pot up a few strong runners because these will root quickly and can be used as replacement plants if needed later in autumn.

Dig up potatoesmaincrop

Dig out and harvest your maincrop potatoes; they’ve finished growing once the foliage has begun to die back. Use a fork and dig at the base of the ridge, parallel to the row to avoid damaging any tubers as you dig. Once you’ve lifted a plant, collect the tubers and dig again to check that you have got them all out. Any tubers left deep in the soil will grow next year and increase the danger of carrying pests and diseases into future years.

Dig a large hole, making it a little deeper than the tree’s rootball and wider near the surface where the shallow feeder roots develop. Drive a short stake into the hole to support the tree.

Water the base of the hole, loosen the roots slightly, and put the rootball inside. Place the stake 2-3cm away from the trunk. You may need to cut into the rootball to do so.

Place the tree in a position that will allow the prevailing wind to blow it away from the stake, then firmly secure the tree to the stake with a soft, adjustable rubber tree tie.

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Backfill the soil around the rootball, treading it in as you go, and hold the tree firmly in place to ensure that it stays central and upright as the dug out soil is filled in around it.

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The early weeks of October can be warm and colourful, with the garden full of autumnal shades. But there is also a sense that the growing season is over. Despite the feeling that winter is on its way, there’s still plenty to do – with floral and edible harvests, and none are more colourful than squashes and pumpkins. It’s also a good time to plant roses, while the soil is still warm, and to get your daffodil bulbs into the ground or pots for a spring display. On the veg patch, it’s a good time to think ahead: you can sow broad beans and plant spring brassicas for an early harvest next year.

Sow Plant Prune Harvest

In your flower patch

Plant mini irises

Around the garden

Mow down lawn toadstools

Mow off any toadstools in the lawn when you see them.

Toadstools are the fruiting bodies of naturally occurring fungi in the soil under the grass. They are prolific where there is organic matter to grow on. As the fungus breaks down the organic matter, it adds nutrients to the soil and makes grass look richer and greener in patches or circles.

There is no chemical control. To help reduce them, you could try scarifying the lawn regularly to reduce the build up of organic debris among the grass.

Plant roses

Potted roses will have plenty of time to bed in before winter if you plant them now.

 Stand your plant in a bucket of water while you prepare the planting hole. Fork lots of wellrotted manure into the planting area to enrich the soil.

 Dig a large hole, soak the base with plenty of water, then add mycorrhizal fungi to encourage extensive root growth.

 Plant your rose, firming it in well, and make sure the bulky part at the base of the stems is covered.

 Water again, then mulch the soil with a thick layer of compost.

Remove debris from the lawn

Pick up fallen apples from the lawn before raking up any leaves. Damaged apples can be pressed for juice or used for cider making –it’s not worth trying to store them. Compost any rotting apples. You could also leave a few fruits in the garden as a source of food for birds and small mammals. Wasps will move in on them too, so be careful when clearing if you are sensitive to their sting.

tenderOverwinterplants

Lift tender perennials before frosts can damage them. Heliotropes, tender fuchsias, and pelargoniums will all overwinter in a frost-free greenhouse or cool porch.

 Dig up as much of the rootball as you can. Then trim shoots and remove flowers and dead leaves.

 Pot them up into multi-purpose compost, either individually in large pots or together in a crate. Keep them in the light, trimming back any soft shoots that grow, and remove any leaves that wither.

QUICK & EASY

Plant daffodils

Add daffodil bulbs to your borders now for a cheery spring display. The bulbs need a long cold period for good root development. Fork the soil in your planting area, then use a hand trowel or bulb planter to make holes 10-12cm deep.

 For a natural look, scatter the bulbs across the ground and plant them where they land.

 Or place them where you want them to grow, in groups or in a swathe through a border. If you have a lot to plant, work from one side to the other to avoid disturbing bulbs already planted.

This is a great month to prepare pots of delightful scented miniature iris bulbs to flower early next year. There are several cultivars of Iris reticulata, danfordiae or histrioides to choose from. When they flower, keep them outside but place somewhere where you can appreciate their flowers and scent. Small pots of spring blooms are ideal for brightening windowsills or doorsteps. After flowering, give the bulbs a high-potash feed before they die back, to strengthen them for next

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grit to some loambased compost, then part-fill a shallow alpine pan or pot. Arrange the bulbs with their pointed ends up.

Carefully fill with more compost, covering the bulbs without knocking them over. Firm lightly, then cover the top with a layer of fine grit.

Write a label with the plant’s name on it and push it into the compost against the rim of the pot. Water thoroughly, then place in a cold frame or sheltered spot.

Growing

Plant garlic for harvests next year

Choose a sunny site to plant garlic this month. Garlic grows best in free-draining soil, so if your soil is heavy, start off the cloves in modules or pots and plant them out later. Remove any weeds, then firm the soil and rake in a dressing of a granular general fertiliser. Separate the individual cloves, then plant them 15cm apart, with the tips 2cm under the soil. Water after planting and don’t expect to water again until next spring. Once the leafy shoots are showing, keep them moist and weed free by mulching around them with well-rotted organic matter. The bulbs swell rapidly in the spring months and will be ready for harvesting in June or July.

Sow broad beans

Collect and store pumpkins

Cut pumpkins and bring them indoors before the frosts. Keep a long stalk or part of the stem on the top of each fruit. They won’t last outside through the winter without rotting. Pick them up from underneath to avoid damaging the stalk at the top, where rots can start from. The skins should have hardened well by now but they are best cured for a few more days on a windowsill or greenhouse bench that receives plenty of light. They’ll store for months in a cool, unheated room with good ventilation and no source of humidity.

Remove all figs from trees

Our climate doesn’t allow all the figs on a tree to ripen, as a much longer summer is needed for that. Remaining ones must be discarded now to avoid fungal problems in the crop next year. Pick them off and discard, but keep the tiny immature fruits that have set on the outermost tips, because they will supply you with figs next year. Wear gloves when you are doing this because the sap of fig trees can cause a skin rash.

Harvest cabbagesautumn

Sow a row of broad beans for an early harvest next year. Choose one of the autumn varieties, which can withstand low winter temperatures, such as ‘Aquadulce Claudia’, ‘Super Aquadulce’ and ‘The Sutton’. Sown now, they’ll germinate in a few weeks and the pods will be ready for picking a good two to three weeks earlier than the Februarysown varieties next summer.

If there’s a prolonged cold snap, put fleece over the young plants to protect

the leaves from scorching. The roots will survive and will reshoot if the plants get damaged. Put in supporting canes and string as the crop emerges, to prevent the stems from being pulled to the ground when the pods swell.

Water the seed along the row after sowing, but after that, only water if it’s very dry because broad beans don’t grow very well in waterlogged soil. Get your broad bean recipes ready for delicious first pickings in late May.

It is possible to harvest cabbages all year. Cabbages that are ready to harvest in the autumn are the conical-shaped summer cabbages or the first of the drumhead or ball-shaped winter varieties, which are sown in spring and are hardy, tasting sweeter after frost. Harvest as and when you need them, cutting the base with a knife.

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Loosen the soil along the row with a fork then face a hoe to the ground and drag out a flat-bottomed drill as wide as the blade and about 5cm deep.

Sow the individuallyseedsalong the row, around 15cm apart. Use a staggered pattern, as above, to fit in more plants within the same spacing.

Rake the displaced soil back over the seed, then work along the length of the row with the back of the rake, gently tamping down the soil.

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Write a label with the seed name and date of sowing. Use a pencil or indelible pen. Put the label at one end of the row and mark the other with a low cane.

The days may be shorter and getting dark by four o’clock, but November is still full of colour. Look out for bright winter stems, glossy berries and colourful foliage. Although the weather can be grey and rainy or cold and snowy, there will still be chances to get out into the garden. We can keep busy with jobs that remind of us the spring to come, such as planting tulip bulbs or bare-root shrubs and trees. It’s also a month to tidy up and put the garden to bed for winter – clearing away weeds and spent crops, raking up leaves and moving tender plants indoors.

Sow Plant Prune Harvest

What to do this month

Around the garden

Make a shelter for bugs

Collect garden debris, such as twigs from prunings, fir cones and hollow stems from perennial flowers, plus soft bricks or stones with fissures and use them to create bug shelters. Put them in boxes, bottles or tie them into bundles. It’s a great opportunity to get creative in the garden.

Shelters can be placed on the ground, tucked into hedges or tied onto low branches. As long as the site is sheltered, you’ll have provided safe winter homes for beneficial ground beetles, lacewings, ladybirds, solitary bees, hoverflies and many others.

Collect leaves

Use a rake, broom or leaf blower to remove the leaves that have fallen on lawns and paths. Collect them into piles then pick them up and mix them into the compost heap or store separately to make leafmould. Or spread them out with a rake and run a mower over them, with the blades on a high setting and the grass box attached. If leaves are left to rot down on the lawn, moulds may grow underneath the layer of leaves, causing damage.

Finish clearing crops

 Pull out the final remains of the summer’s crops outdoors and dig over the soil.

 Plants of chillies, aubergines and even tomatoes may be on their last legs but still in the greenhouse. If left they will be a magnet for overwintering pests and fungal rots so they are better put on the compost heap.

 Pick leaves and dropped fruit from the soil and sweep up the debris from pots and growing bags. Add old potting compost to the compost heap too.

 Clean out any containers that have been used for growing veg and store them away ready for the spring growing season.

Stop squirrels from stealing your tulip and crocus bulbs by putting netting over borders, or chicken wire over newly planted containers. Remove the netting and wire once you see the green shoots starting to appear. EASY

JOB OF THE MONTH

Test your soil’s pH balance

Measure the pH of your soil with a home test kit, which you can buy from garden centres or online.

Nutrient availability is affected by pH, so should be a factor in plant choice. It’s useful to know the pH for new borders so you can choose plants that are suited to your

type of soil. Choosing the right plants for the right place will mean your plants thrive and put on a good display.

It’s also worth checking the veg plot where you regularly add material that can change the pH of soil. Take soil samples from just below the soil surface at rooting level.

Dry your soil sample on some paper for a day or two before testing. Pour the soil into the test tube up to the marker given in the instructions provided with the kit.

Check the instructions again and add the right amount of soil indicator liquid to the soil in the test tube – the amount needed can depend on your soil type.

Put the stopper onto the tube then turn it to horizontal and shake it for a good few minutes to give the soil particles a chance to become suspended in the liquid.

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Stand the tube upright and leave it for a few minutes. The soil settles and the liquid at the top becomes coloured. Hold the tube against the colour chart to discover the pH of the sample.

It’s time to tidy up as we reveal some of the top tasks for gardeners this November

In flower patch

Start off tulip bulbs

Now is a good time to plant tulip bulbs because they need a cold period to develop strong roots before they go into growth and flower next spring. The timing is important because planting earlier than November risks the bulbs getting a fungal infection called tulip fire. Choose a freedraining site in the sun and fork out any weeds before raking in a dusting of bonemeal fertiliser. In borders, plant the bulbs at least 10cm apart. In pots they can be crowded in but that is for a temporary display and they should be planted out deeper and given more space next year.

Buy bulbs with the biggest girth measurement for the best quality flowers.

Look for firm bulbs with the brown sheath intact, around 12cm in circumference. Reject any that are showing signs of mould.

Plant tulips in holes that measure 2-3 times the depth of the bulb itself. Depth is especially important for the permanent planting of species tulips that need to perform in the same spot year after year.

Fill planting holes with soil, or if you are planting in pots, cover the bulbs by adding more bulb compost or John Innes No.2 compost. Firm gently to avoid pressing on the bulbs.

Growing your own

Pick Brussels sprouts

Pick the sweetest sprouts right after the first frosts. Early varieties can be picked before this but the main harvesting season starts this month. Take off the protective netting and gently snap the sprout from its position. There won’t be much growth now so it doesn’t matter if you pick all off one plant or graze a few from each. The tops of the plants are edible too and can be cooked like cabbage.

Harvest the last apples

It’s time to pick the last of your apples. Bring them in and go through each one, looking for damaged fruit. Only select perfect fruits for storing somewhere cool and dark. They will last longer when wrapped individually in paper. Use all the blemished fruit as soon as possible. Late-ripening apples tend to have firm flesh, which is great for cooking, so use them in pies or desserts or cook and freeze the pulp.

Give herbs shelter

 Growing fresh herbs can save a lot of money because buying dried or packeted herbs or pots of living herbs from the supermarket can be expensive.

 Move your pots of herbs into more sheltered positions to maintain the quality of foliage, allowing you to pick them for as long as possible.

 Evergreen sage, thyme and rosemary grow well in containers, with the added advantage that they are easy to move around, and parsley grows well over winter too.

 Lemon verbena will benefit from a little protection from frost.

Check your frost protection

Wrap up plants that are vulnerable to frost damage (this may be based on the weather forecast or for the whole winter), covering fully or just at the crown of the plant. Fleece tents give good protection for tender leafy evergreen shrubs, such as bananas, exotic shrubs and tree ferns. A thick layer of mulch over permanently planted dahlias and cannas will protect the roots. Good soil drainage in winter will also help vulnerable plants survive the winter. City warmth, natural shelter and tree canopies offer protection too, so the cover you use will depend on the microclimate.

Repot mint and bring indoors

Mint is a vigorous plant and can quickly get pot bound, so now is a good time to repot it to improve the foliage for picking. Knock the plant out of its pot and split it with a knife into manageable sections. When a plant is really pot bound, the base of the roots can be cut right off at the base, by a third of the depth of the rootball. This stimulates rootPotreplacement.thenewsections into large pots, using a compost mixture of equal parts loam-based potting and multi-purpose compost. Firm plants down into the pot then water well. Give the plants plenty of light.

Check stored potatoes. Go through the tubers looking for wet or rotten ones. Dry off the rest, put them back into a paper or hessian bag and exclude light.

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