Tips & Hints
for

Rather than seeing the late Autumn and early Winter as the end of the season look at it instead as a new beginning - preparation for 2007. On a fine day when the air is crisp it’s a great time to be outside clearing, cleaning and digging, and splitting and moving plants. Containers should be emptied of the last of the Summer flowering plants and spent soil and new compost added for the planting of Spring bulbs and plants.

Tidy and clear the borders cutting off all the dead stems from perennials; all the soft material should go to the compost heap but leave out roots of perennial weeds.

November is a good time for planting new shrubs in the borders as well as soft fruit bushes in the kitchen garden. If the weather is poor then work can be done in the greenhouse and shed - cleaning tools, tidying and getting rid of old seeds and safely destroying out of date fungicides and pesticides. Visit garden centres, nurseries and local gardens open to the public and make notes of what grows well in your area.

Some days in December are too bad to be outside so it’s a good time to plan - wait for a break in the weather and, if you’ve not done this before, go out and measure the garden, list the plants and check the aspect. You can then sit down indoors with a pad of graph paper and make a scale drawing of the area plotting the position of existing trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants. With the help of your favourite gardening books many further absorbing hours can be whiled away in planning new layouts, planting schemes and constructions for the future.

Lastly as Christmas approaches, list things you might ask for as presents for the coming gardening year, and items to give to gardening friends.

Happy New Gardening Year!

Home		Recent Projects