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The Garden Diary

Jobs and topical info for the month of

October 2002

Mists and mellow fruitfulness …hmnn, we shall see. I suspect thick fog and botrytis will be more the ticket but that shouldn't stop us from getting on with jobs necessary to wind-down the garden ready for the winter. Despite living in Cranham and being surrounded by what must be the most lovely woodland in the world, I still find Autumn an intensely depressing time of year, heralding as it does the winter but then without winter there is no spring. So, the reason why I was busy digging up bulbs from the vegetable garden is that it now time to plan your spring bulb displays and get your bulb orders together ASAP.

Do not think you will be saving money by getting the "bargain bin" bulbs that have been reduced to clear in the garden centre before Christmas as they are worse than useless if they are kept under lighting in dry heat for more than a few days so if you buy retail rather than mail order, buy your bulbs as soon as they come into the shops. You can either keep them in a cool dry shed (fog and damp permitting) or layer them in a box of sand until planting time in November. Bulbs that have been properly stored however can, and often have to be planted right into the new year if ground conditions allow.
Do not be tempted to buy dormant Snowdrop bulbs at this time of year. These rarely appear in spring and should always be bought "in the green" just after flowering when they will have time to put down roots and feed the bulb ready for next season. Winter Aconites should be bought in a similar state.
Always put plenty of sharp sand/grit under bulbs, as sitting with the base plate in wet soil is the cause of more disease and failures than anything else.
Plant some sweet pea seeds if you didn't get round to it last month in order to get strong plants to put out for early blooms next year.
Any tomatoes that haven't ripened by the end of the month probably won't due to lack of sunlight so cut off any trusses of reasonable sized fruits and bring indoors to continue ripening. A good trick is to put them with a ripe banana as this gives off xylene gas, which encourages fruits to mature. (that is why you should always store bananas separately from other ripe fruit)
Once greenhouse crops have finished, have a good clear out in the greenhouse (the only reason mine is so clean is that it hasn't had time to fill up with clutter yet, but there is still time!). Remove all dead plant material, which could harbour pests and diseases and wash and stack your plant pots ready for next year.