Preparing the garden for winter and next year

Perhaps it is because I garden and as such become more attuned to the seasons, but I quite enjoy the onset of autumn. The shorter days, the softening light, the changes in the garden and the world around us as everything prepares for winter; there is a certain beauty to it. That said, there is plenty to be getting on with readying the garden for the weeks ahead and into next year.  

The English Lavender has already been pruned back with the flowers now finished meaning the Miscanthus Indian Summer grasses are now the highlight of that bed. The plan for this bed was for the bronze stems and feathery seedheads of the grass to sit beautifully behind the green/silver foliage of the mounded Lavender plants and it is working I am happy to report and thus far the grasses are withstanding the battering they have received from all the recent wind and rain.

It has to be said, though we haven't had it as bad as some parts of the country, the garden as a whole has withstood the storms pretty well so far though the lawn is pretty sodden. With the weather as bad as it has been I haven't been able to get through all the jobs I had planned by now and the Vegetable Patch looks pretty sorry for itself with just some bashed up Runner Bean plants all that is left standing the Tomato plants long since removed and composted. I will get out there and do some weeding and winter digging later this week weather permitting; there is little point with the ground as wet as it is at the moment. I intend to add quite a lot of Compost and Manure to the two main veg beds this winter and it is a job that can be done over the coming weeks so there is no immediate urgency.

The six Agapanthus plants I have in pots are well and truly over now having been flowering beautifully for weeks earlier in the year. An easy plant to care for, with spectacular blooms, they are a plant I would recommend anyone to have in their garden. They prefer to be constrained in a pot in gritty soil and can be left un-watered for several days so are a perfect low maintenance plant. I will be splitting a few this year to make extra plants for next summer. One has burst from its pot, splitting the terracotta straight down the side; there is an old saying that Agapanthus will tell you when they are ready to be potted on by doing just this! To divide I will remove the entire plant from the pot and literally saw in half popping the now two plants into their new pots in a gritty compost mix; it is that simple. I will keep the new plants well-watered for a few weeks until established. I tend to move my Agapanthus undercover in the Greenhouse in winter as even though they are fairly hardy, the extra protection sees them through the winter in good health.  

If you haven’t already done so now is the time to be planting spring bulbs such as Daffodils and Crocuses and now we are in November to plant Tulips as well. I have a patch of bulbs under the Cherry tree in my garden with Snowdrops, Bluebells, Daffodils, Hyacinths and Alliums dotted about all mixed together. The soil under the tree is fairly free draining naturally and the bulbs have been thriving for a couple of years; it is of course the natural habitat for many of them, the Bluebells in particular. They supply some much-needed colour in late winter and spring, but the show is over by June leaving the patch somewhat bare for half the year. I am thinking of adding some summer colour with maybe a sprinkling of wildflower seeds in the hope of prolonging the show until autumn at least in 2024. I have added some of the native Foxglove seedlings I have been growing on in pots to this area as their natural habit is dappled shade in a woodland clearing; one Cherry tree is far from a woodland but hopefully it will work. The seedlings seem happy enough thus far and all being well will flower through June and July next year.  

I have recently been gifted two Hydrangea Macrophylla in 12-litre pots, big established plants, and a Bamboo Fargesia Black Woman that were all due to go on the skip at a site a mate of mine was working on. All three require a little TLC but all being well I can get them through the winter and look forward to seeing how they perform next year. I am looking forward to discovering if the Hydrangea are Lacecap or Mophead and what the colour the flowers will be; my mate thinks they are red. Whatever happens they will look a lot nicer in my garden than on a skip!  

Cheers 🍺