Garden tidy underway for autumn, plus sowing of Acorns and Horse Chestnuts with the future in mind

With autumn well and truly upon us jobs in the garden and the vegetable patch become fewer and much of my time on the plot recently has been as much about tidying-up and clearing away as anything else. I have four compost bins and try to add as much as I can from what I am clearing from the greenhouse, vegetable patch and flower beds to these at this time of year; if you don’t have compost bins I thoroughly recommend getting at least one. With my four bins I can produce two or three hundred litres of compost in a year, great for simply spreading around the garden or for use in potting mixes and with the price of store-bought compost rising constantly at the moment, you can save yourself a tidy couple bob at the same time.

As I am clearing the greenhouse I am also preparing it to store the more tender plants over winter; the seven Agapanthus I have in pots will go in there for the colder months for example. Talking of Agapanthus, any regular reader may recall I mentioned I had sown some seeds taken from the plants in 2024 and I am happy to report I have three seedlings coming along nicely; perfect Agapanthus in miniature at the moment. They will join the established plants in the greenhouse over the winter. You may also remember the Purple Creeping Thyme I sowed from seed earlier this year. The seeds proved tricky to germinate and grow on but I do have four strong plants now. These have been in the conservatory most of the summer and will stay there over winter before planting out in the garden next year. The conservatory is unheated, other than when I am sitting out there, but will provide protection from frost and the worst of the winter cold whilst at the same time acclimatise them to colder temperatures as it can get down to zero in there in the middle of winter. Both the Agapanthus and Creeping Thyme have proved a labour of love growing from seed, taking time and effort being slow growing and tricky grow on, but I have enjoyed the process and will have some lovely plants to add to the garden in 2026.

I recently cut through the cable on my Flymo, a stupid error on my part, so I had to undertake a quick refresher course in electronics, fitting a cable connector to rejoin the severed pieces of power cable. Please be careful when mowing, garden tools such as mowers and strimmers are far safer now than in years gone by but, it still could have been much worse than my bruised ego for doing something so daft! Talking of mowing my lawn continues to grow at quite a rate still and will have at least one more cut this year before the mower is cleaned and packed away for winter.

A little update on the experiment in growing trees. The suspected Field Maple sapling I found in the vegetable patch did not survive transplanting sadly, but the experiment continues with Oak and Horse Chestnut Trees. I collected a couple more Acorns on a recent walk in the Country Park and three Horse Chestnuts, Conkers as they are more commonly known, so I now have three Acorns and three Horse Chestnuts planted in pots in the log store at the end of the garden. They will over-winter there giving them as natural an experience as possible, exposed to the weather throughout the winter; they need to go through a cold stratification period to break dormancy, as some seeds do. I have the pots in a large plastic tray used to carry pots around in a Nursery, which should prove an ideal home for now. The tray collects any rainwater, a bonus if I forget to water them, but has also allowed me to place wire mesh over the pots, keeping any inquisitive Squirrels at bay! As mentioned previously I have no ides what i will do with the trees should I prove succesful, there maybe some 'gorilla gardening' in my future planting trees under the cover of darkness, but that is a problem for a year or two from now; for now I shall simply enjoy the process of trying to grow an Oak and a Horse Chestnut from seed. As Rabindranath Tagore once said “The one who plants trees, knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life.”

Cheers 🍺