Busy Busy Busy In November

With the days now short of daylight and gloomy it really takes a lot of effort to get out there into the garden and catch up with some chores.  But look on the bright side, in just over six weeks time the days will again be starting slowly to get longer.

Well November is certainly leaf litter clearing up month. I know that many people get a bit fed up with sweeping up the fallen leaves in their front gardens from the trees that line our streets. But this is a small price to pay for all the benefits that trees provide.

Not only are they beautiful and provide colourful interest with their leaves, flowers, fruits or berries, but think how boring the streets would be without them. 

A concrete jungle? 

No thanks! 

More importantly, trees are needed environmentally as they take in carbon dioxide and give out oxygen to help keep the air that we breathe cleaner.

Leaf litter makes excellent leaf mould when it has rotted down, but it is not a good idea to put the swept up leaves onto the normal compost heap as leaves take longer to break down. 

My advice would be to keep them in a separate compost container, or collect the leaves up into a black plastic bin bag.  Add a little water into the bag of leaves if the leaves are dry, as this will help the decaying process.

Also punch a few holes in the plastic bag and tuck it away in an unseen corner of the garden. Forget about the bag for a year and then next autumn you’ll have wonderful decomposed leaf mould to spread out on your borders and help improve your soil.  Let nature help you with the recycling.

I myself am going to be busy planting trees this month. I’ll be planting up a Cherry Blossom avenue, which will look lovely next spring when all the pinky-white blossoms are out.  This’ll be an oriental style garden and if all goes well it should look spectacular.

I’ll also be planting up trees to create a Laburnum walkway. The fabulous cascading yellow flowers of the Laburnum will look stunning next May.

In addition to all this, I’ll also have the pleasure in planting up a few of my favourite trees, the Japanese Maples with their dainty artistic leaf form and my selection will include varieties with stunning red colour foliage.  

I can’t wait to start!

If you are planning to plant any trees in your garden it is always important to consider the full height the tree will achieve once it has matured and how wide the canopy will be.

Also consider how dense the foliage will be, as this will create shade under the tree area. Remember not to plant trees too near to buildings, walls or paving so as to prevent any future damage that could be caused by the tree roots.

Remember if you have a small garden, then select a tree that won’t outgrow its allotted space.

Well. that’s it for this week.  

Take care. 

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© Copyright Judy Fenyvesi

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Looking Ahead…

This is the time of year when many of us start to spend more time indoors and forget about the garden, however, you could save yourself time and money by using the time now to plan your garden for next year.

This is the best time of the year when we should be thinking and planning how we would like our gardens to be and want sort of plants we would like to be growing next season.

Autumn is certainly the garden’s “renewing time”, as this is when we should preparing and improving the soil by digging in lots of organic matter and many of the existing plants in a garden can be transferred and replanted. 

This is also the prefect time to plant new trees, shrubs and bulbs. Existing lawns can be repaired if parts are worn out and during this time you could be reshaping your lawn for new flower borders or to completely renew and smarten up your garden.

A well-designed border can really enhance and add interest to the garden. When planning a border consider some of the following elements: what form or shape would you like the borders to be?

A straight traditional border gives more of a formal theme and if it butts up to a lawn then it will be easier to mow. A less formal look is to have curved edges to a border to give it a softer attractive feel and look.

Always consider the aspect your border faces, for example if it is south facing it will get hot sun all day and if it is north facing then it will have to have shade loving plants. So therefore it may be preferable to have larger planting borders where the garden get more sun light.

Think about plant and colour schemes; the most popular request I get when I am asked to design planting schemes is for all year-round colours. Now it’s not always possible to have borders in full flower all year round, but the objective to achieve is that there is some form of interest in a border for each month of the year.

The best way to do this is to sit down and with pen and paper and under a list of the months, list what plant will be looking its best during that particular month.  At this stage you should consider the colour scheme as well. Do you want a hot border with lots of bright colours or a soft pastel cool coloured border?

When planting up your border start with your ‘star performers’, those are the plants which are going to be the focal points, then plan for the evergreens as this will provide the back ground and framework to your border. After that, plan the shrubs and perennials to give seasonal interest and finally finish off with the ‘fillers’ such as bedding plants and bulbs.

Even though we’re in the autumn season now, use this time wisely to shape up your garden for next season.

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It’s All About Autumn

Although autumn is now here and taking its effect on our gardens, there are plenty of routine gardening chores which we can be getting on with.

For instance, we can still be mowing our lawns with the blades nice and high.

Around this time of the year we can also be getting on with winter digging as well as pruning.

Do remember do not trim established hedges now unless the weather is very mild as any frost may damage new shoots.

If you have any tall roses in your garden, then I’d prune them back in height now to reduce ‘wind rock’, which is what happens when the winter wind rocks the plants back and forth.

Not only does this cause structural damage to the plant itself, but also this rocking creates a gap between the soil around the base of the plant whereby water can collect and rot the plant.

While on the subject of roses, around now is the best time for planting bare-rooted roses, new trees, shrubs and getting hedges established, but I wouldn’t plant them in frosty, wet or windy weather; I’d choose a nice dry day instead.

It’s time to slowly start tidying up the garden getting it ready for the rough treatment it’s going to get during the winter months. I’ve already started clearing out the dead foliage of perennials as well as generally clearing up other parts of my garden.

Talking of perennials, if you have any which have become a little too over-crowded, then lift and divide them and either move them elsewhere in your garden or give them away to a fellow gardener.

Now is the time to be thinking about improving the soil in your garden, as better soil will naturally produce better plants. If you have your own well-rotted compost then dig that in, if not, then you can always get some from your local garden centre.

If there is limited space around your existing plants for digging then simply just spread the compost over the soil surface and the worms will quite happily oblige and do the rest of the work for you. I’m always one for getting nature to do some work for me in the garden and this is just one of those jobs.

Many of us have problems with moss on our lawns and so it’s a good idea to rake over, or ’scarify’ the surface, removing as much of the moss as possible. It might interest you to know that in classical Japanese gardens, gardeners will do the opposite and remove any grass from their moss surfaces.

One job that I’m looking forward to doing is planting out my winter pansies. I love these plants as I think they’re really great for adding cheery winter flowering interest. Not only do they come in such a wide variety of colours but they’re so versatile too and can be used in borders, raised beds, hanging baskets, window boxes and containers.

You can still keep planting spring bulbs out this month, but be aware that squirrels will probably be wanting to dig your newly planted bulbs straight out again for their own winter larder.

If squirrels are a problem in your garden then protect your bulbs by covering the newly planted soil area with chicken wire, remembering to remove them once the shoots start to come through. Another tip is to use Cocoa shell mulch as squirrels aren’t too fond of this.

Well, that’s about it for this week.

Do join me next week for my next gardening and garden designing posting.

Have a great week.

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Brighter Bulbs

I think that this time in the gardening year is so exciting with the new season of bulbs coming into the shops and garden centres. I’ve just recently treated myself to a bag of tulip bulbs aptly named ‘Red Riding Hood’ which will be a rich red colour with flamboyant bold wide leaves which will have dark maroon markings.

Other bulbs that I’ll be looking out for will be a tall variety of the purple Allium, which is the Latin name for “garlic” and these bulbs are part of the ornamental onion family. I’ll be planting these so that they’ll grow through some silver foliaged plants to make what I think is an attractive colour combination of the lilac-purple and silver colour scheme.

I think planting in combinations can have a stunning effect and it’s fun to experiment with different contrasts, foliage, colours and shapes.

One combination I have in my own garden at the moment consists of black grass, Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ planted together with the almost black coloured tulip ‘Queen of the Night’.

You can tell I love black flowers and plants.

Bulbs are so useful in the garden as they take up little space and are super to use as fillers amongst other plants and like I said, you can create decorative planting combinations with them. Another way to use bulbs is to plant them into pots or containers and use them in the borders where you have gaps and after they have finished flowering you can simply move them elsewhere.

Another interesting way to use bulbs in the garden is to naturalise them into a grassy area. Daffodils, Crocuses and the small variety of Fritillaria with its delicate nodding bell flower heads are great for this.

The secret to planting these bulbs is to just get a small handful of bulbs and throw them down onto the ground and where they fall is where you plant them. This way you will get a more natural look as opposed to planting them specifically in a set pattern.

For those of you without a garden, you can still make use of bulbs, as there are so many that can be grown indoors.

One indoor bulb that’s familiar to many is the Hyacinth, which is often grown in a glass container filled with water so you could see the roots growing. Hyacinths have a wonderful strong scent that can certainly fill the house.

Many indoor bulbs come already planted up in containers and are all set to grow without much preparation, however you can easily plant up your own container with spring-flowering bulbs of small daffodils, tulips, crocuses and irises. Plant some small leafed ivy into the container to add extra foliage interest and voila, you have your own instant indoor mini spring garden.

Well, that’s it for this week.

Next week I’ll be taking a look at the Queen of the Bulbs. I

n the meantime do remember to visit my website at www.gardendesigner.co.uk for more hints and tips or to know about my own garden designing service.

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The Creeping Up Of A New Season

As I see the first signs of the Virginia creeper’s leaves starting to turn red I know that autumn is just around the corner, but September is still a vibrant and colourful month in the garden.

One ‘sunny’ flower that is in it’s full glory this time of year is the Rudbeckia, with the common name of Black-eyed Susan, as it has a blackish-brown centre with yellow daisy-like flowers. These are easy and reliable plants to grow in any sunny spot and can grow up to three feet tall to make a super late summer, through to early autumn, display in a flower border.

Another ‘good doer’ for the late summer garden is the Sedum spectabile ‘Brilliant’, which is a clump forming deciduous perennial with upright stems of fleshly leaves that have clusters of small pink star-shaped flowers. This plant has the common name of Ice Plant, as the glaucous fleshly leaves are always cool to the touch. The attractive flower seed head can be left on the Sedum throughout the winter to give interest and then cut away when they have got too tattered.

A climber that is really showing off in my garden at the moment is the Passiflora caerulea, the Blue Passion Flower. The flower of this plant is so exotic and unusual; I really do marvel at its exceptional splendour. This is a fast growing semi evergreen climber that likes a hot sheltered wall and it produces bright orange plum sized fruits in the autumn. Passion Flowers come in a range of other colours such as white, magenta pink, red and purple, but these are not so hardy as the blue variety.

Another pretty climber which is also useful for summer and autumn interest is the Clematis tangutica. It has these lovely dainty lantern-like nodding yellow flowers that transform into wonderful silky swirls of seed heads. This Clematis can grow to a height of fifteen feet and can be hard pruned down to about a foot in spring to give new fresh growth for next season.

There are many enthusiastic and passionate Dahlia growers and I can certainly understand why they’re so keen about this particular flower. The flower heads are truly amazing and their forms range from single petals, to pompom, ball and to decorative forms.

Dahlias flower from mid-summer to autumn until the first frost and also come in a wide variety of colours from whites to reds, yellows to oranges, light pinks to deep purples and will look super in borders. Most Dahlias will need to be lifted unless it is in a frost-free area. After the leaves have been blackened by the first frost, dig out the tubers, brush off the soil and leave in a cool dry place to dry naturally. Then simply dust with a fungicide, pack in boxes of peat or dry sand and store in a cool dry place. The tubers can then be planted out next spring after all danger of any frost has passed.

Well, that’s it for this week and do remember to visit my website at www.gardendesigner.co.uk for more hints and tips or to know about my own garden designing service.

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