Gosh, with the excitement of the Olympics over, the Paralympics well under way, and the kids soon back to school, suddenly there are more hours in the day again. Make sure you spend some of them in the garden!

With the extraordinary weather conditions we have experienced this year, it’s nice to be able to look forward to the blaze of colour that heralds in Autumn in the coming months, but don’t shut the garden down too soon, as there’s still plenty of time to plant.

In fact, September is one of the very best times to do so, as the ground is still warm so roots can grow fast. Our next delivery of gorgeous Italian shrubs and trees will be arriving in the middle of the month, so if you’ve noticed a gap that needs filling, or have decided to finally plant that tree you’ve been thinking about for so long, come along and take a look at what we have on offer.

In case you aren’t aware of this, I go out to our growers in Italy every year, and hand pick the items that are then delivered to us throughout the next 8 months or so. Doing this ensures that we are able to offer you the best possible price on the plant stock, as there is no middle man to be paid – the plants come directly from the grower to us. On average this means a saving for you of 25 – 30%. Some of the items to look out for are

• Autumn flowering Camellia sasanqua
• Nandina domestica with its lovely fiery autumn foliage
• Trachelospermum jasminoides, including a new variety that flowers even more profusely in the shade
• Pyracantha with gold, orange and red berries

New in the shop:

• Spring Bulbs Yup – it’s that time of year again! Sally has ordered some lovely varieties, including delightful Cyclamen coum, Fritillaria, and Muscari, as well as Narcissi, Allium, Crocus and Tulips. As always, we can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to re-stock items once they run out, so if there are particular bulbs you definitely want, please make sure you get them as soon as possible. We have an informative “how to plant bulbs” sheet by the till. Do ask for one if you feel unsure.
• Wildlife World products This award-winning company make seriously good products to encourage wildlife to come to, and stay in, your garden. If you have a pond, check out the ceramic ‘Frogitat’ (I’ve also got some little pond dipping nets in for small hands!), New England style bird houses, lovely ceramic birdbaths, and simple nesting pockets.
• Bee and bug habitats We all know how vital ‘beneficial’ bees and bugs are, but how many of us provide a place for them to live? Unless you have a wild patch of garden with an undisturbed log pile, there may not be anywhere for these creatures to take refuge. A simple, aesthetically pleasing solution is one of the new bee and bug boxes we have in stock.
• Brown bags After 7 years of pestering Southwark council, they have finally agreed to let us hold a permanent stock of the garden refuse brown bags, so if you need to grab a bundle, look no further. They’re free, of course, and can be left outside your house on collection day.

At the time of writing, I’m planning some more antiques and vintage buying sprees, to replenish a rather empty looking Vintage Shed! If there is ever anything in particular you want me to look out for, please let me know.

Lastly, please remember to look after the wildlife in your garden as well as the plant life. The birds rely on us during the coming months to keep them fed and watered. If you don’t do so already, start adding fat balls or suet blocks in your bird feeding regime as they need the extra calories that these provide when the weather turns colder.

With warm wishes for a glorious September

Karen

PS A good friend of mine, Donald Greig (who you may know as a member of The Tallis Scholars, with whom he sang for many years), has just had his first book published and is holding an event at Dulwich Books on Thursday 20^th at 7.30pm. If the idea of a novel billed as ‘Name of the Rose meets The Da Vinci Code, written by David Lodge’ gets your juices flowing, why not pitch up for this free event to launch ‘Time Will Tell’?

Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday 9.30am – 5.30pm, Sunday 10am – 4pm

Tel:020 8670 7788 www.alleynpark.co.uk

Garden jobs for September

As we begin to move into autumn, everything in the garden seems to mellow. If you have a vegetable patch or a few pots of carefully tended vegetables, you may be harvesting tomatoes, beans, squash and courgettes still. Elsewhere, there are glorious late flowering perennials giving final blazes of colour. Soon though, flowers will begin to fade and the growing rates slow as the days get shorter. But it’s a lovely time of year, with the promise of fiery autumn colour, and warm days to get out in the garden or on your balcony to do some jobs.

General Maintenance

• Give evergreen hedges their final trim of the year.
• Pot up tender herbs such as basil and bring them indoors for the winter.
• Extend the summer season by deadheading and feeding hanging baskets and containers. Replace faded summer bedding with winter flowering pansies and violas.
• Prune late summer flowering shrubs when the flowers have finished, including rambling roses.
• Once lavender flowers have faded, cut the plants back with secateurs, within the green growth, not brown wood. Doing this each year will maintain neat, compact plants and encourage more side shoots to grow.
• As leaves begin to fall, cover ponds with net to prevent leaves falling in and affecting water quality. Nets also protect fish from herons and other predators.
• Rake leaves regularly, especially from lawns where a thick layer of leaves can kill off the grass. Leaves can be used to make leaf mould – store wetted leaves in black plastic sacks for 2 years and you’ll have a fantastic soil conditioner.
• Herbaceous perennials which have got too big in their allotted space, or which look tired, can be divided and replanted immediately – this generates free plants!
• It’s worth mounding a good layer of compost or horse manure around established trees and shrubs, including fruit trees, roses and wisteria. They’ll really benefit from an autumn feed, and will produce stronger growth and more flowers in the spring if mulched now.
• Keep tidying the garden, removing dead and dying leaves from plants, pulling up weeds and generally cleaning to help prevent pests and diseases overwintering.
• Tackle perennial weeds such as bindweed with glyphosate based weed killers.

Fruit and Vegetables

• Keep picking raspberries, and prune the canes once fruiting is over.
• Net fruit trees to protect fruit from the birds.

• Remove fallen fruit from around trees and shrubs before it rots.
• Fix grease bands round the trunks of apple trees to trap the wingless female winter moths as they try to climb the trunk to lay their eggs (which would turn into bud eating caterpillars!).
• Root vegetables can be lifted and stored, but it’s best to leave parsnips and swedes in the ground to be frosted as this improves their flavour.
• Plant vegetables such as Calabrese, Purple sprouting Broccoli, cabbages etc to enjoy through winter and spring.
• Continue to feed tomato plants with a high potash feed every week. Remove yellowing leaves and leaves which are covering the fruit. This will increase air circulation and help to reduce the risk of grey mould.

Planning and planting

• Prepare areas for new planting next year by digging in good quality, well rotted horse manure. If possible, dig down at least one spade depth. The winter frosts will break the soil up even more, making less work for you in the spring.
• Think about spring colour and start planting spring-flowering bulbs now in beds or containers. Small bulbs such as crocus, dwarf iris and small narcissi can be put in window boxes to grow through pansies or violas. Most bulbs can be planted from late summer until late autumn. Daffodils should be planted as soon as possible to get some good root growth, while tulips are best planted in November in the cooler temperatures to avoid infection by tulip fire, and so that their shoots don’t appear too early and get frosted in the spring.
• Bulbs should be planted at the right depth – a general rule is a depth equivalent to three times their own height, but the packs always give planting instructions.
• Autumn is an ideal time for planting many trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants. The ground is warm and roots have a chance to get established before the winter cold. Autumn-planted trees, shrubs and perennials often have a head start on those planted in the spring, putting energy into top growth at the first hint of warmth in the spring.

Lawns

When the weather begins to cool, lawns benefit from an autumn work over – in 3 easy steps:

• Scarify – to remove old “thatch” (dead grass) and moss – use a springy rake to clear the congestion that has built up over the growing season.
• Aerate – to improve drainage and help protect against a buildup of moss – use an aerator designed specifically for the job, or a fork.
• Fertilise – a thin layer of lawn dressing (a combination of top soil, sand and fertilizers) or horticultural sand, should be raked or brushed to fill the holes created by aerating. This will improve drainage and avoid winter waterlogging, especially in heavy clay soils.

September is an excellent time to lay a new lawn with cut turfs, as they will establish their roots quickly, without putting on too much top growth, avoiding the need to mow. Additionally, you are less likely to damage the newly laid turf as the temptation to be out on the lawn is reduced in the cooler autumn months than in the spring. You can also revitalise patches in your lawn that are worn out, either with seed or by cutting in new turfs.

Use a lawn weed killer to control perennial weeds before the weather cools.

Pests and disease

Slugs and snails have caused havoc in so many gardens this year. The wet weather has helped them to survive very successfully and they are attacking plants which they perhaps don’t normally feast on. It’s very disheartening.

There are two main approaches – prevention and removal.

• Keeping the garden clean and tidy will reduce hiding places.
• Hand-picking and disposing of slugs and snails works - if you gather up all the adults before they reproduce, things will get dramatically better, because the tiny ones you miss don't do the most damage.
• If you don’t favour pellets, look up Nematodes. These are natural organisms already in the soil, which attack specific garden pests, such as slugs and snails. Some customers have reported success with these products, bought via the internet.

Wildlife

As Karen has said, we should all help bird life with food and water, and in return, they will help us by eating insects in the garden.

Happy gardening!

Sally

Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday 9.30am – 5.30pm, Sunday 10am – 4pm

Tel:020 8670 7788 www.alleynpark.co.uk