Autumn Gardening Advice
Our gardens are important for the environment in many different ways. From protecting natural biodiversity and supporting essential pollinators, to improving air quality and reducing carbon dioxide, they have a vital role to play. Gardening has also been proven to offer numerous health benefits, both mental and physical.
So if you’re lucky enough to have your own green space, it’s well worth making time to make the most of it. You don’t need particularly green fingers to be able to make a difference! Here are our top tips for gardening jobs this autumn.
● Keep on deadheading dahlias and cosmos. They will continue flowering until the first frosts.
● Pull up summer bedding and the stems of tomatoes, beans and courgettes once you’ve harvested the last crops. Be sure to put all this plant material on your compost heap.
● This is a good time of year to mulch bare ground with organic matter such as leaf mould, woodchip, farmyard manure or compost
● Leave windfall apples for birds and other wildlife to enjoy. Just make sure you move them off the lawn.
● Plant bulbs such as allium, daffodils, crocuses, lilies and tulips for lots of colour next Spring. Remember to dig a hole about two or three times the length of each bulb and place the pointed end facing upwards. In the ground, space them at least one bulb’s width from each other, but in pots, you can place them closer together.
● Make sure you fill up your bird feeders regularly. As the weather gets colder, hungry birds need high energy food to survive.
● Move your houseplants closer to windows as light levels drop. They need as much light as possible in the dark autumn and winter months. And remember to avoid over-watering.
● Leave sunflowers and teasels for birds such as goldfinches to enjoy.
● Now is the time of year to plant individual garlic cloves. They will be ready to harvest in June or July next year
● Climate change means that some bees and other insects are increasingly active during the autumn and winter months. Why not grow some winter-flowering plants such as hellebores, mahonia, snowdrops, crocuses and winter flowering clematis. A great way to increase our local bee population.
