News - Page 69

Carpark plants

The RHS is encouraging gardeners to love ‘carpark’ plants – those super reliable, robust, everyday shrubs often found dotted across urban landscapes.

What to do with the lawn this week?

Scarifying is just a fancy word for removing all the debris which has built up at the base of grass shoots during the year. It’s mostly just dead grass and moss, but it can form into a dense thatch up to 1-2cm thick which prevents air from circulating and chokes your grass.

Time to start a wildflower meadow!

Now is the time to start a wildflower meadow – not only a stunningly beautiful feature for the garden, but also a haven for wildlife including pollinating insects such as butterflies, bees and lacewings. Start sowing in autumn and you’re mimicking nature, as this is when flowers naturally shed their seed.

Thirsk Rotary Club Fireworks Display

*Tickets expected to arrive with us week commencing 9th October

October Jobs for the Month

A bumper haul of berries

The Royal Horticultural Society is predicting a bumper haul of berries this autumn, as a warm and dry start to the year has combined with summer rains to create optimum conditions for berries to form.

Autumn container plants

Plant up autumn containers now to fill your patio with colour and interest through till winter and beyond. Keep your pots looking great as the garden winds down and you’ll still feel as good about your displays once the frosts set in as you do now.

Dry and store chillies

Dry and store chillies as soon as they’ve coloured up fully. By now they’ll have developed their full heat and flavour and as soon as the temperature starts to drop they’ll need harvesting before the cold weather sets in.

Plant of the Week: Rudbeckia

Prairie planting, combining tall, easy-to-manage daisies with airy, graceful grasses, is as on-trend as ever.

Planting Clematis

Plant clematis now to make the most of the warmth still lingering in the air and the soil. This means they have plenty of time to get their roots down before winter ready for a really good performance next year.

How to protect non-hardy plants?

Start moving non-hardy plants under glass now long before they can be hit by frosts. You can keep half-hardy exotic lovelies going from year to year as long as you can keep them reasonably dry over winter: the long list includes fuchsias and geraniums, plus Mexican salvias, diascias and tender herbs like lemon verbena.

Help saving trees!

Leading gardener Alan Titchmarsh is urging gardeners to join a campaign to save trees at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey, under threat because of a road-widening scheme.

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