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Gardening Tips

Hedges, bulbs and winter pots – Grow-how tips for early October

Elaine

How grateful we’ve been for some bright calm days this week, as we get on with the big autumn garden-tidy! Cutting back, deadheading, path-clearing and mulching are all more enjoyable if it’s not actually TEEMING with rain!

There are plenty of other good jobs to be doing too, such as putting in a new hedge, planting spring bulbs and checking tree stakes for starters…………..

We’ve been cutting the hedges!  It was time to give them their final trim so that they will stay neat and shapely through the winter.  It’s nudged me to remind you that the perfect season to plant a new hedge is from now onwards.  The soil is still warm – and frankly, for most of us, definitely moist and easy to dig……..😳.

Aren’t hedges wonderful! They filter the wind, absorb pollution, provide shelter for wildlife, give increased privacy, divide up parts of the garden………..and they often look lovely, to boot. Just look at the fabulous colour of the Pyracantha that I’m cutting, in our feature pic today!

Hedges can be beautiful as well as practical, like this Rosa Rugosa one

Buying a long run of hedging plants can be expensive if they are in pots but can at least be planted most of the year round (given plenty of careful aftercare).  A MUCH cheaper way of creating a hedge is to buy them bare-rooted during their dormant season which starts from roughly the end of October.  You can usually get each hedging plant for less than the price of a newspaper, for heaven’s sake. Talk about value.  The other thing is that bare-rooted plants often establish better and more quickly than potted plants.

If you are going for the bare-root option, there are a few things to remember: don’t let the roots dry out – soak them overnight before planting, Trim up any particularly long roots, and it can be a good idea to dip the remaining roots in miccorrhizal gel or granules if you have some. Plant it in good soil at the same depth it was before (the soil level should be just above the topmost root). Cut back the top growth by about a third – it will help the roots establish more quickly and you’ll end up with a thicker hedge. Keep your new hedge well-watered for the first year. 

The bare-root season is just about to start – save some cash!

 With the warm moist soil and the cooler temperatures of autumn, this is also a great time to move shrubs including evergreens – they will suffer much less stress than if they were being moved in summer. Wait until spring though, if the plant you want to move is borderline-tender. 

Evergreens like this lovely Mahonia ‘Cabaret’ can be moved now with much more likelihood of success

On the subject of hedges, we 3Growbags had a chat about our favourites a while back – check our article out using the link at the bottom.

If you haven’t yet planted your spring bulbs, get on with that task now.  All except tulips which are rather prone to catching a nasty disease called tulip fire if planted too early – leave those till November. 

I don’t know about you but I’m not so keen on seeing bulbs too regimented.  If you stand in the middle of the area where you want them to flower, chuck them about and then plant them where they land, you can achieve a much more relaxed and pretty effect I think. 

Daffodils at Le Hot
Daffodils are much prettier planted randomly rather than in regimented rows – in my opinion anyway!

Of course spring bulbs of all kinds are also great in pots, and I find that I can protect them from marauding grey squirrels better that way (I put upturned wire hanging baskets over the pots and weigh the basket down with a tile).

An upturned wire basket can make an effective deterrent against squirrels digging up your tulip bulbs

People can get in a bit of tizz about how deep to plant spring bulbs, and it’s definitely true that daffodil bulbs planted too shallow-ly (is that actually a word?) will produce only leaves and not flowers.

You are usually fine if you dig the hole 2 or 3 times the depth of the bulb i.e. bigger bulbs equal deeper planting. For most daffs, that’s likely to be about 6” (15 cm), but if in doubt, go a little deeper rather than more shallow.

A bulb-planter can be a handy tool for this job, providing you with a neat plug of soil to put over the bulb afterwards.  Otherwise, use a long trowel and we have the perfect tool for you in our shop – click on the link at the bottom.

  • Go round your tree ties and stakes and make sure that they are all firmly attached but not cutting into the bark or damaging anything.  We can have some very rough weather in October and November, as we all know!
Check that tree stakes and ties are firmly in place before savage autumn and winter winds
  • Empty out the compost from any growing bags that you have used this year and re-cycle it as mulch for your beds and borders.
Spreading mulch on the beds is one of the best things you can do for your garden soil. There are lots of different options – using the spent compost from growing bags is a good choice
  • Lightly prune shrubs such as hebes which can become rather sprawly if left to their own devices.
Hebe 'Autumn Glory'
Hebes can become a bit sprawly – give them a light prune now.
  • Plant up a winter pot to provide you with colour as we embark on the dark winter months – a mix of coloured foliage and winter flowers works well and lasts a long time – try Skimmia japonica, winter-flowering heathers (Erica carnea), and some primulas for instance. Other lovely choices might include an early-flowering camellia, cyclamens, Pernettya, snowdrops, ferns, Gaultheria or winter pansies.
Winter pot landscape
  • If you have a greenhouse or glasshouse, start moving your tender plants in for the winter.  It’s something Laura attends to every year
Laura will be moving her lemon trees inside this month amongst other tender plants

She’s even made a short video giving tips on how to treat each group of tender plants, click on the box below to watch it:

Overwintering tender perennials

Here is the link to our discussion about hedging plants.


Laura shows you how she protects her tender plants over the winter in this video.


Ornamental grasses really come into their own at this time, and here’s a deciduous one that just looks more and more beautiful as it changes colour through autumn. For Louise, it makes a smashing Great Plant of the Month:


Do look at this lovely trowel in our shop – it will be just perfect for planting your spring bulbs ready for that fabulous show next year.

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By the3growbags

We're three sisters who love gardening, plants and even the science of horticulture but we're not all experts. We'd love everyone even remotely interested in their gardens to be part of our blogsite.

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