Before we start on the tips for your autumn garden I’d like to ask you the following question (there is a reason for this, as we shall discover a bit later on)
What first springs to mind when you hear the phrase: – “an early Autumn garden”?
If you need some help with focusing an image, a scent, a sound, perhaps these examples will help: –
- Apple trees in an orchard, laden with ripe fruit ready to be harvested.
- Leaves on deciduous trees and shrubs beginning to change their colour from green to shades of red, orange and yellow.
- Picking blackberries from the wild area of your garden and adding them to the new crop of culinary apples to make an autumnal fruit crumble for pudding.
- Enjoying the blaze of bronze Chrysanthemums and ruby red Dahlias in the flower border.
- Discovering that the squirrels missed some of the hazelnuts so there are a few for humans (yey!) but the mice have been nibbling at the flower bulbs you stored in the potting shed (bother).
- Or even something as simple as needing to wear a jumper when you have your early morning wander round the garden.
And the reason I asked is that these are some of thoughts that come to my mind when I imagine an early autumn garden. Because of course a writer has to start a blog article somehow – and so I’ve used my first thoughts to create helpful tips and ideas for you and your garden.
Edible Gardening – Apples
Apples are a traditional fruit of Harvest Festivals and the Autumn Equinox (22nd September in 2020). Depending on the variety they’ll be ready for picking from mid August through to October. To check if your apples are ripe, support them by cupping your hand and gently twisting the stem where it meets the tree. If it releases easily, the apple is ripe. Tugging should not be required.
Thanks to rootstock developments, smaller trees mean more of us can enjoy a selection of apples in our gardens. And even grow them in pots on balconies and in courtyard gardens by growing on an M27 rootstock.
But there are ways to fit fruit trees into small gardens other than using a dwarfing rootstock. For example, they can be trained in to a fruit arch or stepover forms can edge a path instead of a low hedge.
Your Autumn Garden – Leaf Fall
It is a surprise to many people to discover that evergreen trees and shrubs lose leaves all year round. The reason is that evergreens are constantly growing new leaves and losing the old ones.
Whereas deciduous trees grow new foliage every year during the spring months – and then lose their leaves in the autumn.
Now, if your garden has many deciduous trees and shrubs you could be forgiven for wanting someone else to come and sweep them up for you! But take heart: They do not all need to be swept up.
Yes, you did read that correctly. Letting the leaves lie on the soil in the borders enables them to form a mulch, protecting the roots of the shrubs from frost. And as the leaves decompose, worms will take them down underground to improve the soil.
However, its not a good idea to leave all leaves on the soil. Those which take a long time to decompose, such as Oak and evergreen leaves are better swept up and composted separately. Diseased leaves should preferably be removed from your garden – they are best composted at higher temperatures in municipal or commercial facilities.
Wildlife Gardens and Wildlife Gardening
Wildlife gardens and wildlife gardening are not exactly the same thing. Strictly speaking, a wildlife garden is a garden designed and maintained primarily for the benefit of various animals, birds and insects and the plant life which is best able to sustain them.
By contrast, wildlife gardening is easily incorporated into virtually any garden without losing sight of the fact that humans are the main users. Perhaps the simplest way in which to start gardening in a wildlife friendly way is to garden organically.
Another simple trick includes leaving seed heads on at least some of your flowering plants. Remember to collect some seeds for yourself and to share ands swop with other gardeners. If you’re worried about hordes of self-sown seedlings that might result, remember that many of them will produce small leafy clumps this autumn. You could hoe these off whilst you’re less busy over the winter, or do it in the spring.
Your Autumn Garden – Colourful Flower Borders
Are you one of those people who like to keep to the same colour scheme year round for your flowers? Or do you like to change the main colour along with the season?
For the former, if we take pink and white to be the dominant colours, come the autumn there are Salvia and Penstemon still busy flowering away. Fresh delights for your autumn garden be Nerine bowdenii, Japanese anemone and dahlias.
For the latter you may change to bold orange, yellow and bronze. Try Helenium, Rudbeckia and Chrysanthemums to brighten up your autumn garden borders even when the sun isn’t shining.
Flowering Bulbs for Spring and for Christmas
Spring Flowering Bulbs
Finding that mice or some other creatures have eaten the bulbs you carefully lifted from containers and borders and stored is highly annoying!
Perhaps look on it as an excuse to indulge in some new varieties of Narcissus and Tulips – in fact why not try some totally new-to-you flowering bulbs?
For example, Scilla peruviana, also known as Peruvian Squill, has lovely blue-purple flowers in April and May. If you leave the bulbs in situ in the ground, rather than lifting them, the plant grows into a substantial clump after a few years. The bulbs tolerate a bit of slug, snail and pigeon damage. And even bouncing on by exuberant puppies, as the clump tends to stand slightly proud of the soil surface. So the occasional football on leaves and bulbs won’t be a problem either!
And make sure that next year, the bulbs are stored in a closed container, not absentmindedly popped into a plant pot to deal with ‘later’.
Bulbs for Christmas
As in forcing bulbs to flower outside their normal time so we can enjoy blooms at mid-winter. I’ve previously written a blog with instructions on how to do this – the link is below. It’s fairly simple and might interest your children if you try the growing bulbs in water version so they can see the roots.
Your Autumn Garden – planning ahead
Just as you find yourself, the gardener, reaching for an extra layer on cooler autumn mornings and evenings, so too will some of your plants appreciate a little bit of help in keeping warm.
Tender perennial plants such as citrus trees may need putting under cover on cooler or windy nights, even though they’re still happy outside during the day for a bit longer. Lemons are generally hardier than their orange, lime and grapefruit cousins.
Canna are still flowering in exotic planting schemes and should be fine for another month, depending on how exposed your garden is. Of course you may treat these as annuals rather than tender perennials, especially if you’re short on space for overwintering plants.
This is a good time to go and check your supply of hessian, horticultural fleece and anything else which you might use to keep your tender plants protected without having to take them all into that huge greenhouse that you covet but don’t actually possess…In other words buy these supplies now and not at the beginning of November when there’s none left.
I also start saving up newspapers and carboard packaging about now. Both are a cheap way of insulating plant pots and the plants in them and reducing the amount of plastic in the garden too.
Your Autumn Garden – what next?
If you have other thoughts that form queries about your own autumn garden for which you need answers, you may find helpful tips and gardening ideas in the blog links below.
But if your question isn’t answered there, please do email Plews, as we answer frequent topical questions in the monthly Plews News, and we might include your query there.
Oh, yes, and that’s as well as dropping you a quick answer by email if its not an involved question!
If you would like help with learning more about your garden and gardening, why not ask about our bespoke Gardening Lessons, where your classroom is actually your own garden. We can help you learn gardening basics, and also show you how to plan an ornamental border or kitchen garden.
You could come and find us on Instagram Pinterest and Facebook too.
Related Gardening articles you may enjoy from our Award Winning Blog
How to Choose Apple Varieties
Making Leaf Compost
Creating Small Wildlife Habitats in Your Garden
Understanding Dahlias
When to plant bulbs for spring flowers
Forcing bulbs for Christmas flowers
Oranges and Lemons – How to Grow them
