We love reading comments from you lovely lot at the bottom of the posts that we write. They give us food for thought, spark off ideas and make us laugh…sometimes all three at the same time. If you read my post last Saturday about five things I’m looking forward this month and the subsequent comments underneath then you’ll know that there were quite a few requests for more garden related posts on the blog.

Keen to acquiesce to your demands we rejigged the editorial schedule for you and lo and behold today’s post is all about the green stuff. Now before I go much further I should say that the requests were varied so today’s post will be all about what I’m doing to prepare the garden for Spring and what I’ll be ordering for the garden at our new house.

I’ll be following this up in the coming weeks with a post on how to make a Tulip lasagne and also a round-up of my year of gardening (what I’ve learned and my veggie successes). Perhaps if the interest is there I’ll also share an update on the new garden and how we’re intending to structure the outside space. You’ll need to let me know if this is something you’d like to read though….

First things first I am by no means a professional gardener…anything but! All I have is a love of the great outdoors, a thirst for horticultural knowledge and moderately green fingers that have managed to produce tomatoes, potatoes, aubergines, courgettes, peas, lettuces, carrots and celery this year to name a few. Please feel free therefore to jump in if you feel I have missed anything or if you want to share your horticultural trials and tribulations with everyone. I’m purely writing this from my limited experience and basic knowledge of the natural world.

Lottie’s husband Edd wrote a brilliant post last year about what to do in the garden from a maintenance perspective over the coming weeks (which you really need to check out!) so I’m not going to go over old ground so to speak. He’s included tonnes of tips and tricks that you can start working through from this week. My recommendations below are simply a few additions to Edd’s fairly lengthy list which I’ll be carrying out myself over October.

  • First things first I’m collecting seeds from my summer flowering plants for planting next year. I usually aim to collect approximately 70% and leave the remaining 30% for hungry birds over the winter. This way I’m keeping next year’s crop budget friendly which means Ste can’t moan about the stupendous sums I spent on plants this year… With really beautiful seed heads like poppies I tend to cut off and arrange them artfully in vases for year round decoration. Dried hydrangea heads work equally as well and Lauren wrote a useful post last year on how to successfully dry them for maximum effect if you’re interested.
  • Continue with your deadheading and weeding; this keeps the garden tidy but also you don’t want to leave any roots of pesky weeds in the ground to overwinter either. They’ll be even tougher to get rid of next year if you do!
  • If you have any overcrowded Spring or Summer perennials (plants that live for more than two years) then now is the time to divide them and replant them. This is effectively a free way of increasing the number of plants in your garden. My mum has a number of peonies that are languishing at the back of her garden so I’ll be applying this treatment to them! Use two garden forks back to back to split larger clumps.
  • Beds and borders will need frost proofing before the winter arrives to protect roots and bulbs from the harshest of Winter weather. I highly recommend adding either a mulch or a soil improver which will enhance the soil adding extra nutrients as well as a protective barrier against frost.
  • Equally empty beds and veg patches that aren’t being used over the next few months and turn them over to incorporate organic matter.

Planting wise the ground is still warm so now is a brilliant time to plant spring bulbs and I’ve decided to go down a very monochrome route with the front bed purchasing multiple rhizomes of Anemone nemorosa (Wood Anemone) and Lily of the Valley. I’ve added a couple of different snowdrop varieties to the mix as well and complemented my selection with a few Hellebores Niger. Hopefully these should harmonise with the silvery white tones that already exist in the bed from the Stachys byzantina ‘Silver Carpet’ and the Hidcote Lavender and the blue-green tones of the Eryngium giganteum ‘Miss Willmott’s Ghost‘.

Once these early flowers go over I hope to see the decadently rich dark blooms of my tulips that I’ve picked for this season take over. I’ve chosen La Belle Epoque, Black Hero, Black Parrot, Victoria’s Secret, Havran and Ronaldo‘ as well as Bruine Wimpel and Recreado. I’ll be planting some directly into the ground once the temperature has dropped a bit (Tulips benefit from going into the ground when the diseases and fungus that they are prone to during the warmer months have died off) and some into some planters and a giant washtub that I scored from my grandparents’ house which will garnish the step outside the front door. Any tips on what to underplant these tulips with would be very much welcomed!

Hopefully by this point the wisteria will have been planted at the front of the house and the box balls will also have been moved into position so there’ll be a lovely succession from early January through to at least May. I’m debating whether to add narcissi into the mix too…and this is just the front garden.

And that’s about as far as I’ve got to date. I’ll be back soon talking about which plants I’ve decided to nurture over the Winter under glass and with further updates on the back garden. I’d love to hear what you lovelies have planned so please feel free to comment below with your ideas and any tips you’d love to share with us.