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Autumn is often considered to be the season when we put the garden to bed. Cutting down, clearing up – the end of the gardening year. But gardeners know that this is really the beginning: a time to sow, grow and prepare for the year ahead.
Featured Plants
NEXT YEAR’S BEDDING
Summer bedding plants have a new lease of life when they reach September. If frosts hold off they can continue to perform right through October, particularly if you feed and water them. Fuchsias and geraniums (zonal pelargoniums) are big and bushy by now, and a valuable source of cutting material.
With very little effort you can create enough new plants to stock your pots several times over next season. Choose healthy shoots that are not too soft and not too woody. Using a sharp knife or a sharp pair of secateurs, cut just below a node (leaf joint) or remove the shoot with a heel – where a side shoot joins on to a main stem.
Your cuttings should be about 10-12cm long. Remove the lower leaves, and any flower buds, and retain one or two pairs of leaves near the tips of the shoots. You could use clean 11-13cm pots with seed and cutting compost, Surestart from Westland is ideal.
With very little effort you can create enough new plants to stock your pots several times over next season. Choose healthy shoots that are not too soft and not too woody. Using a sharp knife or a sharp pair of secateurs, cut just below a node (leaf joint) or remove the shoot with a heel – where a side shoot joins on to a main stem.
Your cuttings should be about 10-12cm long. Remove the lower leaves, and any flower buds, and retain one or two pairs of leaves near the tips of the shoots. You could use clean 11-13cm pots with seed and cutting compost, Surestart from Westland is ideal.
Push three cuttings into the compost around the edge of each pot. At least a third of the cutting should be below the surface of the compost. Alternatively you could use a large cell tray or a shuttle tray of 9cm pots; one cutting to each cell or pot. These make handling easier, and you are producing individual cell-grown plants that are easy to pot-on early next year. The cuttings will root best on a sunny windowsill, under a propagator lid to help to prevent them from drying out.
The greatest risk to cuttings is botrytis – a mould or fungal disease which results in their death if not controlled. To prevent it remove the cover as soon as the cuttings have taken root and make sure there is plenty of air circulation around the plants. Avoid high temperatures as this will promote soft leaf growth. Drench with a general fungicide as an added precaution.
The greatest risk to cuttings is botrytis – a mould or fungal disease which results in their death if not controlled. To prevent it remove the cover as soon as the cuttings have taken root and make sure there is plenty of air circulation around the plants. Avoid high temperatures as this will promote soft leaf growth. Drench with a general fungicide as an added precaution.
ON THE VEG PATCH
Our rekindled interest in vegetables means a flurry of activity in March and April. Don’t give up on the production cycle in autumn. Now is a good time to plant autumn planting onion sets and garlic. These will grow slowly during the winter months to give an early, flavoursome crop next year.
Both onions and garlic like well-drained soil and an open, sunny position. If you haven’t grown garlic before it is well worth a go. Separate the cloves and plant them 10cm apart and with the tips 2cm below the surface. Alternatively you can plant them further apart to leave space for a pinch of carrot seeds between each garlic plant next spring. This helps to keep carrot fly away and make the best possible use of the space.
You can also grow garlic in a large pot. Use multi-purpose compost with added John Innes and add some sharp sand to improve the drainage. Plant the cloves at least 5cm apart.
Both onions and garlic like well-drained soil and an open, sunny position. If you haven’t grown garlic before it is well worth a go. Separate the cloves and plant them 10cm apart and with the tips 2cm below the surface. Alternatively you can plant them further apart to leave space for a pinch of carrot seeds between each garlic plant next spring. This helps to keep carrot fly away and make the best possible use of the space.
You can also grow garlic in a large pot. Use multi-purpose compost with added John Innes and add some sharp sand to improve the drainage. Plant the cloves at least 5cm apart.
BROAD BEANS CAN BE SOWN NOW
‘Aquadulce’ is the ever popular autumn sowing variety, but ‘The Sutton’, a dwarf growing cultivar can also be sown during October and November. You can sow directly into the open ground. However if you have heavy wet soil, or just find seeds difficult, start them in cell trays of multi-purpose compost. Sow one seed in each cell, and keep the trays moist, outdoors in a sheltered position, in a cold greenhouse, or a cold frame. Plant out when the plants are about 8cm high.
While the soil is moist and the days are potentially mild you can also sow rocket and other short term salad crops such as mustards, cut and come again lettuce and spinach. The instructions on the packet often do not mention sowing now, but if you want tender young leaves you should be successful. Lettuce and rocket bolt and run to seed in hot, dry weather so the cooler days of autumn provide better growing conditions.
While the soil is moist and the days are potentially mild you can also sow rocket and other short term salad crops such as mustards, cut and come again lettuce and spinach. The instructions on the packet often do not mention sowing now, but if you want tender young leaves you should be successful. Lettuce and rocket bolt and run to seed in hot, dry weather so the cooler days of autumn provide better growing conditions.
FOR NEXT YEAR’S FLOWERS
You are bound to have space on the vegetable plot over the winter months. Why not plant a few early narcissi for cutting? Home grown daffodils and narcissi are more fragrant and last longer than shop-bought ones. Also it often costs less to buy the bulbs than it would to buy the cut flowers.
Serious sweet pea growers normally sow their seeds in autumn, and then overwinter their plants in cold frames or cold greenhouses, ready to plant out in early spring. Seed sown now produces an excellent root system which will establish quickly ensuring strong plants and early flowers the following season.
Root trainers are the ultimate sowing environment for the best sweet pea plants. These are reusable deep cell containers that achieve well-developed tap roots and well branched and developed side roots. Choose the deepest ones for sweet peas and sow just one seed in each cell filled with multipurpose compost.
Grow them in a cold frame or unheated greenhouse – remember slow, strong growth is the secret of success and the foundation of good plants. Nip out the tips of sweet pea plants when they are about 10cm high. This encourages strong basal buds to develop which will grow into those vigorous shoots you are looking for.
Andy McIndoe
Root trainers are the ultimate sowing environment for the best sweet pea plants. These are reusable deep cell containers that achieve well-developed tap roots and well branched and developed side roots. Choose the deepest ones for sweet peas and sow just one seed in each cell filled with multipurpose compost.
Grow them in a cold frame or unheated greenhouse – remember slow, strong growth is the secret of success and the foundation of good plants. Nip out the tips of sweet pea plants when they are about 10cm high. This encourages strong basal buds to develop which will grow into those vigorous shoots you are looking for.
Andy McIndoe
