Planning and planting – Gardening tips for September

There’s a nip in the air now, all right!  Even here in the soft south, we’ve already had pretty chilly nights.

There are still tasks to get on with in the garden in spite of the autumnal vibe, such as planning some new features, overhauling the tool collection, and ordering spring bulbs…

Perfect planning

Are you making some changes to your garden this autumn?  Not just the usual tidying-up, maintenance, neatening sort of jobs that need doing at this time of year, but something a little more major, perhaps?  New borders, paths, garden areas? There’s no question that this is a really great time to be doing such tasks while the soil is still warm from the summer months and now friable (the fancy horticultural word for soft and workable) again.

But here’s a nugget from my own experience:  plan it first. You may be a whizz on the computer with these things; I’m not, but I do find it hugely helpful to draw out plans on paper.  Pretty rough ones, I grant you (I’m not an artist either) but an outline scheme of what features are going where, what it will be made of, which plants will be used, etc. will give you a proper ‘anchor’ to the work.

Then when you’ve started your project, and it all looks utterly chaotic and dreadful, as it usually does mid-stream, you can comfort yourself by looking at the plan again and know that it will all be worth it in the end.  I find that a well-drawn up scheme soothes the furrowed brows of spouses, partners etc. too as they survey the mess you have (temporarily, we hope) created.

One further tip – if you are going to have a go at creating a new style in an area of your garden, do your homework on the planting BEFORE buying.  It’s so easy to become carried away with the huge range of plants, shrubs and trees available to us these days, and forget that your original idea was for a sleek, minimalist city space, cutting garden, mini tropical forest, romantic cottage garden, or whatever.  If you can be true to your original thought, you will be so much happier with the finished result.

The beauty of climbing plants

What a difference fabulous climbers make to a garden! No matter how titchy the space, a climbing plant can utilise the vertical area, adding interest, colour and even scent while occupying a much smaller ‘footprint’ than other plants.  Consider buying hardy climbers now, something like the gorgeous Clematis urophylla ‘Winter Beauty’ in this week’s feature pic perhaps? You can get them tucked into the ground before winter in the still-warm earth so that they are raring to go next spring.   

Don’t forget that we are just entering the bare-root season for climbing roses too – you can buy them more cheaply and these bare-rooted ones often establish more quickly than if  they were pot-grown.  We 3Growbags and our columnist Louise Sims have talked about a lot of our favourite climbers over the years; click on the link below to see our choices and find out more about them.  

Tooling up

Do you have a shedful of tired old horticultural tools? The wonky trowel, the rusty rake, the blunt spade?  Yes, you can still garden with them, but it’s soooo much harder with knackered or inappropriate equipment – think Monet painting with a loo-brush, or Jimi Hendrix on a ukulele.

How about treating yourself to a few well-made tools perfectly designed to do the job you are doing?  The difference in the ease and execution of the task will astound you. 

All three of us Growbags agree our mini-chainsaws are a revelation and I, for one, didn’t even know they existed until about two years ago! You must be much more careful to wear protective gear, of course, and standing on firm ground.  But they are a total game-changer for cutting through thick stems or small branches, and it’s such a treat not to be hacking away with an old pruning saw!

We feature two of the ones we use at the end of the blog.

So have a critical look at your collection of kit and consider a few upgrades.  You can’t be expected to create paradise without the tools to do it, now can you?! 

One more thing on this subject – if you use beloved hand-tools with wooden handles, now is a great time to thank them for their service by giving them some love.  Wipe the handles clean, dry them and then apply some linseed oil rubbing it into the wood grain with a clean rag. The oil will make the handles more waterproof and significantly improve the life of the implement.

Gardening shorts

• Garden centres, plant catalogues, online stores and even big supermarkets are busting at the seams now with all sorts of spring bulbs – narcissi, crocus, tulips…..  If you want to be sure of receiving your best choices, do get your order in early.  Leave it late and you run the risk of the company’s stock running out – you might lose out on your Flaming Parrots for another year – disaster! Most bulbs can be planted straightaway but leave tulip-planting until November to avoid the risk of spreading a disease called tulip fire. By the way, you’ll find some good offers on crocus bulbs on our Product Page below.

• The light levels are much lower now and the greenhouse certainly doesn’t need its shading any longer.  Take it down and wipe off any shade paint that you applied at the start of summer.

• With reduced light and cooler temperatures, houseplants need less water.  It’s extremely easy to overwater them accidentally and cause the roots to rot away. Most houseplants will prefer some water every one to two weeks now, but only do it if the top inch of soil feels dry.

• Make sure that you’ve got all the remaining spuds out of the ground before the slugs move in and destroy them. 

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Mini Chainsaws

Don’t be put off by the word ‘chainsaw’ – these feel much less daunting than the ones you see lumberjacks using. Just charge the batteries in your kitchen and off you go (wear goggles and gloves though).

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Product page

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Here is the list of our favourite climbing plants – hope you enjoy browsing, there are some real crackers here!

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A pink-coloured flowering shrub is a rare thing in early Autumn, and Louise is always worried that it might not sprout again after its hard prune in spring. But it always does which is why it’s her Great Plant this Month.

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