The beginning of October often feels like summer hasn’t quite departed as the weather can still be quite warm even though the amount of daylight is now reducing pretty rapidly. Whether or not there is still warmth in the air, there certainly will be in the soil. In fact, soil temperatures will be considerably higher now than in the early spring, making autumn the perfect time for planting trees and shrubs. The roots of newly planted trees and shrubs should establish quickly in the warmer soil and the likelihood of autumnal and winter rains should help this establishment.

Planting holes should be ideally about three times wider than the existing pot or the root run for bareroot plants, but not too deep. Try to plant to the same depth as in the pot or in the case of bareroot plants you ought to be able to see the previous planting depth on the stem. Mycorrhizal fungi applied to the roots will also help establishment, but don’t improve the soil that you backfill with too much. You don’t want to create a small cosseted area, but rather encourage roots to reach out searching for nutrition. The better the root growth the better the feeding capacity once growth starts and the greater the stability of the plant.

There is a great article about planting trees on the RHS website, which illustrates how simple the process can be.

The other great planting opportunity in October is spring bulbs. If you’re one of those people whose mood dips when the clocks go back, getting spring bulbs into the ground is an investment in optimism and cheery signs that spring has arrived next year.

Harbingers of Spring

By the end of the month the days will be markedly shorter and we may be facing our first frosts so get ready to start protecting more tender plants.

This piece was written a couple of weeks before the village’s annual celebration of all things grown. This year the village show is scheduled for Saturday 16th of September and there are cooking, handicraft classes and a special children’s section as well as the traditional fruit, vegetable and flower classes. The more entries there are, the better the display in the hall.

2022 Show

As usual, we growers have complained that it has been too hot, too cold, too dry and too wet at various times of the year. However, the general rule is that every year some things will thrive while others won’t. Right now, we don’t know whether it will be flowers, fruit, roots, brassicas, squashes or the greenhouse crops that will do best, but something will be OK.

The show only makes a spectacle in the village hall if there are plenty of entries, so have a go and support the fantastic band of volunteers who make it happen. You never know you might just end up with a prize winner’s certificate or two. Don’t forget that if you’ve struggled with a particular crop this year then it is very likely that so has everyone else – you’ve got to be in it to win it and your disappointing harvest might just be the best. There is always the oddest shaped vegetable class for the things that went really wrong.

Prize Presentation

Entry Forms are in the Cookham Dean Fete programme or available from the organiser Helen Philip (07549 519246 helenphilip@hotmail.co.uk). Entry forms need to be with Helen by 6pm Thursday 14th September at 50, Whyteladyes Lane Cookham Berkshire SL6 9LP with entry fees (50p per class).

In August we’ll be balancing our efforts between enjoying the here and now and preparing plants to be in the best possible shape for next year.

For next year, this is an ideal time to prune shrubs and trees that have already flowered. Wisteria, hebes, lavenders, apples and pears (especially restricted forms such as cordons and espaliers) can all be pruned now to promote the production of flowering wood for next year. In similar vein Camellias and Rhododendrons are setting next year’s flower buds now, so if we get a hot dry spell; it could be worth watering them to ensure the production of healthy buds.

With the soil now nice and warm, it is the perfect time to apply nematodes for slug control. Remember that nematodes for slugs tend to have little effect on snails as the nematodes live below ground whilst snails are surface dwellers.

It is also a good time to apply nematodes for vine weevil control. The notched edges to leaves that are a sure sign of vine weevils are not that damaging, but the grubs that are living underground can have a devastating effect on roots, especially for container plants.  For a full story on vine weevils have a look at the RHS web site.

In August there is plenty to enjoy in the flower borders, many of the Asteraceae (daisy) family are at their peak and regular cutting of Dahlias, Gazanias, Sunflowers Argyranthemums, Tagetes and Zinnias will keep them flowering well into the autumn.  Our Dahlia bed on the allotment is coming into full bloom and will give us cut flowers for the house right through the summer and early autumn.

Dahlia Bed

In the kitchen garden, the main job is to keep picking and eating. Courgettes, beans, and salad leaves will all benefit from regular cropping. Some produce is ideal for simple freezing (e.g. beans just need blanching and dividing up into portions).  Others like tomatoes are best cooked and then frozen to give a taste of summer in the dark winter months.  Given a blight free summer we’d hope to have many boxes of ratatouille, roast tomatoes and pasta sauces in the freezer by the end of September.

Overall, July tends to be a month for building on earlier work, rather than setting out on major new efforts. For example, with the hot, dry summers of recent years, we’d certainly recommend holding back on new planting until the autumn.  Not only is planting in to hard and dry ground hard work, a lot of additional watering is likely to be required to see new plants through the summer.  It is much better to wait until the autumn, when the greater likelihood of rain will make both planting and aftercare that much easier.

Dead-heading will keep flowers like roses, sweet peas and dahlias blooming and regular harvesting will keep summer crops like peas, beans and strawberries coming.

Dahlias, cosmos and heuchera flowers

If the weather turns warm and dry again then mowers can be parked up, coming out only occasionally with the blades set high to tidy up grass seed heads, but not put the main grass stems under stress. We don’t usually recommend watering lawns as grass is generally robust enough to survive until rains return. The best time to repair any patches that are lost is in the early autumn, when the soil is still warm, but the chances of rainfall are high.

In other parts of the garden, you may need to think about watering. Generally established trees and shrubs should not need additional watering, but those planted within the last year or so are likely to need a bit of extra attention. Putting in a watering point when you plant makes it easier to make sure that water gets down to the roots where it is needed.  You can use a piece of drainpipe, a plant pot or a plastic drinks bottle, anything that will allow water to penetrate to the root area rather than merely wetting the surface of the ground..

We use a similar approach with fast-growing edible crops, which tend to be quite thirsty. The “Rolls-Royce” option is probably using Gro-Pots, but simply sinking a 2-litre flowerpot into the ground next to a tomato, squash or courgette will help to get plenty of water straight down to the developing root system.

Squash in a Gro-Pot

For crops which are planted together rather than singly, such as sweet corn, we’ll use a network of pots “planted” amongst the seedlings.

Watering pots in sweet corn bed

With the summer solstice this month, we will be enjoying long hours of daylight throughout the month. Our tip this month is to make the most of all this light to enjoy any outdoor space that you have. If you’ve spent time sowing, weeding, pruning, mowing and planting for the first few months of the year, take some time to step back and enjoy the fruits of your labours.  While past performance is no guarantee, June has been quite a warm month in the past couple of years, so this month may be more suited to a bit of R&R than heavy labour.

If we get a spell of decent weather many people’s thoughts will turn to outdoor eating, which often means barbecues in the afternoon or long light evenings. However, a lovely treat in high summer is an outdoor breakfast. With sunrise well before 5:00 a.m. this month the temperature rises quickly and can already be very pleasant by the time that most of us are thinking about surfacing. An early breakfast outdoors, before too much traffic is on the road can give you the chance to catch up with birdsong before the wider noises of life intrude too much.  We’ve been known to pack a flask of tea and a couple of croissants for an early morning breakfast on the allotment.

Breakfast on the allotment

If the weather isn’t so good, June is also a good month for bringing a bit of the outdoors inside. Depending on what you grow, you may be able to bring cut flowers such as roses, peonies, irises, philadelphus and star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) inside. These will all give fabulous scent as well as splashes of colour.

Roses and Peony in full bloom

If you are a kitchen gardener, you may be eating your first early potatoes, the new season’s peas, early strawberries, blackcurrants and the first baby carrots this month, all seasonal treats that are worth sitting down to enjoy.

New Potatoes June 2015

Home grown strawberries

Of course, if you get a bit restless, the long days will leave a fair amount of time for further weeding, pruning, mowing and planting if you fancy.

May is one of our favourite months in the garden. The days are now getting much longer and distinctly warmer and the increased light and temperature are stimulating lots of growth. Seeds that were planted in the dark days of winter have now grown into healthy young plants that are ready for planting out, herbaceous perennials have sprung back into life and brought with them the promise of summer colour and the buds have burst on deciduous trees revealing new leaves and late spring blossom. This month we’ll focus on the last of these.

The vibrant fresh green of new leaves is at its best at this time of year and if you’re lucky enough to have a view across mixed woodland you can enjoy the subtle variations of colour before the heat of summer starts to wash out some of the more vivid colours. In the garden, trees provide structure, shade and habitat as well as ornamental properties, so it is always worth thinking about putting in a tree. You don’t need a huge space too, as there are many options of naturally smaller trees including Acers, Amelanchiers, crab apples, Sorbus (rowan), some Magnolias and dwarfing fruit trees. You can also keep a more vigorous tree pruned to fit the space you have.

Amelanchier in full blossom

This crab apple has been kept tightly pruned to give a centrepiece to our small front garden.

Crab Apple in Blossom

We inherited this dwarf Acer from a client who was moving, it was in a pot, but the roots had burst through the drainage holes and into the ground.  Extricating it was quite a job, but after a couple of years it has settled down after the trauma.

Leaves bursting on Acer

Smaller trees tend to be quite slow growing and therefore expensive if you buy a mature specimen. If you want to have something that reaches the size you want a bit more quickly then buying a vigorous shrub and pruning it to shape as either a single or multi-stemmed “small tree” is a good value option. Viburnums, Camellias and Hollies are all evergreens that are suitable for this treatment.  This is a Camellia that we’ve been training for a couple of years after moving it.

Multi-stem Camellia