So it can initially soak it up from the bottom. Put the tray in a warm spot – a heated propagator or a warm windowsill – and in a fortnight or so you’ll see some signs of germination. If using a heated propagator, switch it off when this happens so seedlings don’t grow tall, thin and leggy. Prick out seedlings into bigger pots when they’re large enough, and they’ll be fine in a cold frame or in the greenhouse. It’s best to sow successionally indoors and then sow a few lots of seed outdoors from spring, so that you don’t have a load of leeks all at once. By mid spring your pencil like seedlings should be good to plant out into the ground, ready to flourish in the open. Leeks like rich soil and consistent, regular watering through summer, so tend to them well.
There’s still some useful gardening to be done this month, particularly when it comes to planting. You can be creating a beautiful summer garden in the depths of late autumn! Here, Ian is planting out some hollyhocks, which have been grown from seed a few months ago, getting established as young plants in the greenhouse until now. They appreciate a sunny spot, which will help bring out all its blowsy blooms when the time comes in high summer. It’s easy to plant perennials.
All you have to do is make sure they have enough space for their roots to establish comfortably, but you do have to consider what soil and aspect each of your plants needs, and when to plant them. If they’re bought as bare root, like wallflowers or geraniums, they’re best planted now or in spring, during the small yearly windows when the soil is at its most moist.
It’s easier with container grown hardy perennials, as they can be planted all year round as long as the soil is pliable enough. Bare root, however, do tend to establish better and produce a more robust rooted plant. Simply make sure the soil in the area you plant in is well weeded and not compacted, so roots can develop freely. Keep young plants well watered as they grow, and keep an eye out for slugs and snails!
Not many plants will be happy languishing in the shade underneath a large tree, but some, such as cyclamen, positively love it! Why not make your own mini woodland with low-growing, sharp bursts of colour from these perennial favourites? Plus you can have different coloured species giving you flowers for six months of the year.
Be sure to choose hardy species, as detailed below. As for planting, space plants about 30cm (1ft) apart for a sparser look, and to leave room for naturalising, or you can plant densely at about 20cm (8in) for more wow factor. If you’re planting into a grassy area, dig out a small sod from the top of your planting hole, ready to be replaced later, then dig a hole deep and big enough for the plants’ root system. Try and dig in a little compost or leaf mould into each hole, to nourish the plants and water well.
Place the plants in, backfill with a little soil and replace as much of the top of the piece of turf as possible. If you’re planting into bare soil, mulch around plants with bark to suppress weeds and retain moisture. Over the next few years, your wild cyclamen spot will increase in size.
What many see as the ‘off season’ is really a misnomer, with arguably the most colourful and interesting plants of all. One way you can add some brightness and beauty to your garden is with a rockery, with many alpines and rockery plants coming into their own now. Create your own little permanent mound or, better still, plant up a mobile feature in a wheelbarrow, which can be moved at different times of the year, for example, to a sheltered spot in autumn.
By their nature, rockery and alpine plants love well-drained spots, rocky slopes and sun, so have a go at recreating a naturalistic mini version. The plants listed below are extremely robust, standing firm through winter, many also being evergreen, and furnishing you with more flowers next spring, summer and autumn.
The plants we used: Cyclamen hederifolium, sedums ‘Rose Carpet’ and ‘Ruby Glow’, gentiana ‘Shot Silk’, scutellaria ‘Texas Rose’, rhodohypoxis ‘Claret’, plus evergreens: heather, sea thrift, Taxus baccata ‘Standishii’, juniper Icee Blue, and Pinus mugo ‘Humpy’.
It’s easy to get excited by all the beautiful berried plants at this time of year, as they light up the garden with clusters of colour. Red, orange and yellow pyracantha, rowan and hawthorn berries are all prolific, as are drooping bunches of rose hips.
If you’d like to extend your collection, propagating is an easy way to do so. Using the seed is so simple, and often more fail-safe than taking cuttings. Plus, the exciting part is that the offspring of your seed-raised plants will be slightly different to its parent in colour, form and habit, which adds a bit of a thrill to the process.
Cuttings, on the other hand, give out exact clones of the originals, and may not be as healthy as seed-grown plants.
It’s best to sow seed now rather than saving it and waiting until spring, as it may not be successful at germinating then because it’s too old. Transplant tray-grown seedlings into bigger pots as soon as you can next year, and harden them off outside in spring, before planting them out in autumn.
1. Choose a shiny set of berries from a healthy plant such as rowan, cotoneaster, pyracantha or Rosa glauca (red leave rose).
2. Use a sieve and a spoon and squish off the berries flesh from the small white seeds. To remove more flesh, run the sieve under a cold tap.
3. Separate the seeds out and fill a tray with loamy crumbly well-draining compost. Scatter the seeds evenly over the surface.
4. Sprinkle a thin layer of compost on the surface and then water in the well. Keep the tray in a cold frame or sheltered spot over winter.
At this time of year, we're all trying to put as much colour into the garden as possible and replicate the vivid colours of summer. Some climbers are wonderful for scent and flowers but, in autumn in particular, there are many with awe-inspiring foliage.
Being planted here is Boston ivy or parthenocissus 'Veitchii' a fast growing climber that's happy in a sunny or shady spot. It'll take up to two years to establish, but the effect of it's wine-red foliage growing up a tree, through a hedge or over an old chimney is magnificent.
It's also a classic for the wall of a house, but it has been known to damage brickwork over time and it needs controlling with a good prune in the winter.
Planting it in a large pot is a good way to keep it in check. Water well and support it with tall canes to start with and then, as it grows, try it up a large obelisk or pergola for a stunning autumn garden feature.
To find out three of the best climbers for cascading colour, pick up the latest copy of Garden News, or subscribe online today.
Cover fruit trees with tight mesh!
It will help keep you free of all problem pests!
The sure-fire way to prevent birds and other animals attacking and eating your plump, ripening fruit is to use a good old-fashioned net to cover them. As our garden animals, insects and birds can’t distinguish between berried bushes that are there for them to eat and those we grow for our own use, we’ve no choice but to do something about it at this time of year.
Now your autumn fruit trees have been pollinated and the fruit is set and ripening, you can invest in a good solid roll of mesh from the garden centre, which will prevent against birds, wasps, squirrels, aphids, hard rain damage and hail.
If you only have problems with birds, you can use larger- holed bird netting, but to be free of all problem pests, use a tight mesh that only lets rainfall in. Keep checking it regularly to ensure it’s still tight and secure.
As well as larger trees, net over your autumn raspberry and blackberry bushes, too.
The common pests to watch out for!
Wasps! A classic autumn fruit pest, you can try enveloping fruit trusses in muslin bags, nylon tights or other mesh. They will attack grapes, pears, plums and apples.
Squirrels! Most ornamentals and edibles, bird feeders and seeds are all at risk! Use mesh or a cage to keep them at bay. They will attack strawberries, apples, pears and nuts.
Birds! Using mesh may be safer for birds, as they can get stuck in fruit cages or large netting. They will attack fresh soft fruit.
It’s so easy and you’ll be rewarded with blooms!
Your lily flowers have probably seen better days this year so why not try and increase your stock? Lilies, as well as most other bulbs, are keen to propagate, it cam become a little bit of an obsession – next year you’ll soon have pots and pots of deliciously fragment blooms you won’t know what to do! Once you’ve potted up your scales and bulblets following the guide below, grow them in a frost free greenhouse over winter and plant them out in spring once established.
Lift out a healthy lily bulb by the plant clean it and discard any damaged outer scales.
Carefully snap off some scales from the bulb with as much of the base of the scale intact as possible.
Put the scales in a bag of coir compost and handful of perlite. Shake, seal and put in the airing cupboard for six weeks.
Bulblets will appear on the scales. When they do, pot them on individually covered with a layer of compost.
A good way of propagating fuchsias at this time of year is by taking semi-ripe cuttings. It’s an easy way of creating new plants for free and you won’t need anything special to do it with, just a sharp knife, some pots and good compost. Follow the steps below and then place your trays or pots of cuttings in a greenhouse, making sure they’re warm and in a bright position. Keep compost damp but not overly moist, as too much water means fungal infections are more likely. Get rid of any wilted or clearly unhealthy cuttings as soon as possible to prevent infection spreading. If you’re taking cuttings a bit later in the year, into autumn, they may need some bottom heat in the form of heat mats. Summer cuttings taken now should be fine though. Give it a few weeks and you’ll be able to tell if your cuttings are working well. They’ll look healthy and green, not wilting, and as if they’re growing a little. This is a good sign that roots have formed well. Leave your new plants to harden off in an unheated greenhouse before potting them on in spring.
1 Pick a fresh, healthy-looking, non-flowering shoot from this year’s growth.
2 Remove all the lower leaves with a sharp knife, leaving just the top ones.
3 Trim just below a leaf node and cut top new leaf growth off, so there are two leaves left.
4 Dip in hormone powder and add to pots of good cuttings compost. Water well.
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