Greetings from the compost corner for September 2017. Can it really be a year since I started dispensing my thoughts on all things horticultural?
It is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness so I hope you have picked most of your crops and have been busy pickling, preserving and making jam so you can savour the summer sunshine in mid winter. Any green tomatoes left in the greenhouse may still ripen but when you clear them out remember the old trick of putting them in a paper bag with a banana to get them to ripen – bananas give off ethylene, which will cause ripening. Or make green tomato chutney - lovely with cheese, especially if you put a chilli in to give it a kick.
The summer bedding pelargoniums (commonly sold as geraniums, which they are not) are slowing down now and can be cut back, potted up and kept somewhere cool but frost free for next year, or you can take cuttings or you can bin them and buy new next year – the nursery trade loves you. Which neatly brings us to winter pots.
Use your containers for winter flowering pansies, heathers, cyclamen and host of others all available at the moment. Think about layering, i.e. put bulbs under the flowering plants to give you another dimension of colour. Try tête a tête daffodils, iris reticulata or tulips. Tulips should not really be planted till November. If planting tulips in the garden remember they come from central Asia so need very sharp drainage: put some grit in the bottom of their planting holes if your soil is the slightest bit soggy.
This is a good time to plant trees. Think carefully about the final size and read the label to find this out and the type of soil needed etc. When buying other plants – and this is a good time for planting as the soil is still warm but moist – look at leaf shape and size and colour, the stems and bark and the overall shape of the plants, because flowers are really a very small part of what a plant has to give.
It is a good time to mulch when the soil is wet: use mushroom compost, which is cheap but contains lime so not suitable for azaleas or camellias or rhodos; homemade compost; or farmyard manure (so well rotted it looks and feels like fruit cake). There is no need to dig it in, let the worms take it down.
Keep leaves (not infected ones - burn or bin these) when you rake them up either in a wire netting pen or in bags with holes punctured in them. Leaf mould is lovely stuff on azaleas, camellias and rhodos. See how wonderful nature is in providing all we need in the garden!
This is a good time to plant clematis. Plant good and deep in case you get clematis wilt, tie in shoots carefully and next spring cut down to 6–12 inches. Existing clematis of the montana, alpina or macropetala or early flowering need no pruning unless they are outgrowing their space. These, such as The President or Nelly Moser, flower on stems which arise from last year's ripened stems
The large solitary flowering ones, e.g. Ernest Markham, Jackmanii and the viticella group, should be cut back in early spring before growth starts. They flower on the new season's growth so should be cut back to 6-12 inches. In short, leave them alone or cut them back hard. It pays to keep the labels on your plants so you know what they are.
October is renowned for high winds, though they seem to have started early, so cut your shrub and bush roses back by about a third or even a half to prevent wind rock. Sort out your climbing roses by cutting out old wood if you have some nice strong new shoots to replace it, tie in securely with a soft tie or string in a figure of eight so the rose does not chafe on the wire. Give them a mulch of something nice but do not feed as it will promote soft growth that will get damaged.
There is still time for lawn care, to buy prepared hyacinths or narcissi for indoors for Christmas, wash out your bird baths as dirty water spreads diseases, and a last chance to trim your topiary. Refrain from giving all shrubs a general trim at eye level as this makes them sprout two or three shoots from every cut. Much better to take out some old stems right down at ground level to promote new flowering shoots.
If you use it, put some mint and in pots on a windowsill.
When your beds and borders are clear of perennial weeds (stinging nettles, docks etc.) and nice and moist you can start barrowing your lovely homemade compost onto them and spreading it in a good thick layer - not right up to the stems and trunks of plants, though. If you haven’t got any, then now is the time to get your system organised. If you really haven’t room for composting, then anything you can buy in bags will help with soil structure and nutrition. When emptying spent compost out of pots, throw that on the borders. Even lawn clippings if out of view at the back of shrubs are useful in keeping down weeds and they soon go brown and fade from sight.
Happy gardening, and till next month, good wishes from Compost Corner.
It is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness so I hope you have picked most of your crops and have been busy pickling, preserving and making jam so you can savour the summer sunshine in mid winter. Any green tomatoes left in the greenhouse may still ripen but when you clear them out remember the old trick of putting them in a paper bag with a banana to get them to ripen – bananas give off ethylene, which will cause ripening. Or make green tomato chutney - lovely with cheese, especially if you put a chilli in to give it a kick.
The summer bedding pelargoniums (commonly sold as geraniums, which they are not) are slowing down now and can be cut back, potted up and kept somewhere cool but frost free for next year, or you can take cuttings or you can bin them and buy new next year – the nursery trade loves you. Which neatly brings us to winter pots.
Use your containers for winter flowering pansies, heathers, cyclamen and host of others all available at the moment. Think about layering, i.e. put bulbs under the flowering plants to give you another dimension of colour. Try tête a tête daffodils, iris reticulata or tulips. Tulips should not really be planted till November. If planting tulips in the garden remember they come from central Asia so need very sharp drainage: put some grit in the bottom of their planting holes if your soil is the slightest bit soggy.
This is a good time to plant trees. Think carefully about the final size and read the label to find this out and the type of soil needed etc. When buying other plants – and this is a good time for planting as the soil is still warm but moist – look at leaf shape and size and colour, the stems and bark and the overall shape of the plants, because flowers are really a very small part of what a plant has to give.
It is a good time to mulch when the soil is wet: use mushroom compost, which is cheap but contains lime so not suitable for azaleas or camellias or rhodos; homemade compost; or farmyard manure (so well rotted it looks and feels like fruit cake). There is no need to dig it in, let the worms take it down.
Keep leaves (not infected ones - burn or bin these) when you rake them up either in a wire netting pen or in bags with holes punctured in them. Leaf mould is lovely stuff on azaleas, camellias and rhodos. See how wonderful nature is in providing all we need in the garden!
This is a good time to plant clematis. Plant good and deep in case you get clematis wilt, tie in shoots carefully and next spring cut down to 6–12 inches. Existing clematis of the montana, alpina or macropetala or early flowering need no pruning unless they are outgrowing their space. These, such as The President or Nelly Moser, flower on stems which arise from last year's ripened stems
The large solitary flowering ones, e.g. Ernest Markham, Jackmanii and the viticella group, should be cut back in early spring before growth starts. They flower on the new season's growth so should be cut back to 6-12 inches. In short, leave them alone or cut them back hard. It pays to keep the labels on your plants so you know what they are.
October is renowned for high winds, though they seem to have started early, so cut your shrub and bush roses back by about a third or even a half to prevent wind rock. Sort out your climbing roses by cutting out old wood if you have some nice strong new shoots to replace it, tie in securely with a soft tie or string in a figure of eight so the rose does not chafe on the wire. Give them a mulch of something nice but do not feed as it will promote soft growth that will get damaged.
There is still time for lawn care, to buy prepared hyacinths or narcissi for indoors for Christmas, wash out your bird baths as dirty water spreads diseases, and a last chance to trim your topiary. Refrain from giving all shrubs a general trim at eye level as this makes them sprout two or three shoots from every cut. Much better to take out some old stems right down at ground level to promote new flowering shoots.
If you use it, put some mint and in pots on a windowsill.
When your beds and borders are clear of perennial weeds (stinging nettles, docks etc.) and nice and moist you can start barrowing your lovely homemade compost onto them and spreading it in a good thick layer - not right up to the stems and trunks of plants, though. If you haven’t got any, then now is the time to get your system organised. If you really haven’t room for composting, then anything you can buy in bags will help with soil structure and nutrition. When emptying spent compost out of pots, throw that on the borders. Even lawn clippings if out of view at the back of shrubs are useful in keeping down weeds and they soon go brown and fade from sight.
Happy gardening, and till next month, good wishes from Compost Corner.