Late Autumn Gardening Tips
By the Gardening Team
Winter is on the way but there are still plenty of jobs to get on with in the garden. Here are a few ideas from our gardening team to inspire you in your own.
Plant tulip bulbs after the first couple of frosts. Planting tulips later than other spring bulbs can reduce the risk of tulip fire. Janine is planning to plant tulip ‘Shirley’, a bright white tulip with lilac edges, and the parrot tulip ‘Texas flame’ around the Farmhouse and Lodge. Vic has chosen ten different varieties for the cutting garden including ‘curly Sue’ an aubergine-coloured tulip and ‘salmon prince’, a single-early flowering from March.
Cut back herbaceous perennials such as hardy geraniums and peonies. Pull out any annual weeds, dig out nasty perennials like dandelions. Follow with a mulch like seasoned leaf mould, mushroom compost or composted bark. We have chosen a rich mushroom mix for the vegetable garden protecting the open ground from the rain which compacts the soil.
Lift dahlias after the foliage has been burnt by the first frost and leave them to dry out.
Collect up fallen leaves for leaf mould; it’s brilliant for enriching the soil. Put the damp leaves into a container with good drainage - whether that's a bin liner with small holes or a larger receptacle made of chicken wire. Let the leaves rot for at least one year before applying it to your garden. After one year, it will make a suitable mulch, if you leave it for two, you can use it as part of a homemade potting mix.
5. Harvest all pumpkins before the first frost. We have a number of varieties, ‘crown prince’ is the most popular with the Ox Barn kitchen, we also have a type named ‘celebration’, a speckled acorn squash, and the delicious onion squash ‘uchiki kuri’. We cure our pumpkins in the greenhouse for a couple of weeks before storing them in a cool larder.
6. Prune roses. Mike, our resident rose expert, suggests taking off a third of the rose plant now, to prevent wind-rock - which is what it says on the tin - gusts can disturb the plant and thus the roots. New growth on climbing roses can be trimmed back, and remaining stems tied on to the wall or frame.
7. Weed! It never ends!
