Late autumn 2020.

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My garden is a place which wholeheartedly celebrates all the seasons. From spring bulbs and apple blossom, through to summer and autumn, where perennials, annuals and ornamental grasses practically fill my entire garden. As we now head towards winter, plants with sturdy architectural stems and great seed heads will shortly begin to take precedence.

I truly love spending time outdoors in my garden at any time of the year, but it was just too wet to be outside this morning. However I still found great happiness through just looking at my rain and windswept garden from the lounge window.

So why not join me, over the coming months where I will be mulching, designing , planting ,pruning, propagating drinking coffee, and thinking up new ideas for 2021. Plus checking in on the overwintering plants in my greenhouse, when it is too cold or wet to be outside.

So, here we are on the final day of October, and weather wise here in Shropshire , it is pretty mild, so I will be continuing with all the practical gardening jobs as mentioned in this post until we get a ground frost.

If you have any gardening queries, you can contact, through the blog, and I will try to help out.

October (at home)

The wooden summer garden furniture has been stored away, and replaced with these low slung weather resistant chairs . I am hoping for some sharp dry days, where I might choose to have a coffee and watch the visiting wildlife on the sturdy seed heads.

Ornamental grasses are a very important element of my garden. I love their sound and movement on a windy day. They are perfect at dividing the garden into spaces, and their colour is so striking throughout the year.

Carex testacea and Anemanthele lessoniana, are the two main grasses in my garden.

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Foxgloves ( which were sown in mid August ) were potted on about a fortnight ago. They will sit on the greenhouse benches throughout the winter, and be planted into their permanent garden spaces in late spring.

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I do like Dahlias., and they are making their way back into the greenhouse to be overwintered.

October has been a great month for cut flowers. My weekly summer bucket full, is now dwindling down to around a big bunch. This weeks colours were so vibrant !

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October – (at work)

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October was a great time to clear these perennial Asters, which had practically filled an entire border, due to their particularly vigorous root system. Hopefully the Japanese anemones will have more space now. Eventhough anemones are considered to have quite an invasive root system, they were no match for the Asters.

The Aster offsets were potted up at three stems to a 10cm container, and will be replanted elsewhere in spring . I will need to remember how good they are at filling a border though, and try to match them up with an equally invasive root system, so they might balance each other out. I think golden rod should do the trick!

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This year at home, I have focused on No Dig . Some of my customers are now quite keen to start caring for their gardens in this way. Judy and Martins raised beds are now being revamped in the no dig way.

In the image below, ground elder was left, and cardboard laid over all this perennial weed. The fern was dug out, and planted elsewhere. Hazel branches were used to stop the cardboard blowing away, and the foliage will now naturally decompose, adding nutrients to the soil over winter as they rot down. If we can get a good layer of well rotted manure onto this over winter, that would be even better.

The beds will now be over wintered , whilst we decide how we will use them productively in 2021.

October has been a really great productive gardening month, and I hope you have enjoyed this blog round up.

November, will be along very shortly, and as soon as my bulbs arrive, there will be a bulb planting blog on the way.