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Monthly Tips >
October
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Gardening tips from William Sinclair Holdings PLC.
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October brings rain, wind and cloud, but
often there's a spell of settled weather. Gardens can still be
colourful with chrysanthemums, Michaelmas daisies and cyclamen,
not forgetting berries and autumn foliage. It's not too late to
plant something that will give you colour for years to come.
Follow our planting tips to get your new acquisitions of to a
flying start. You may have more fallen leaves than you know what
to do with. Don't waste them – with the help of J Arthur Bower's
products you can turn then into valuable compost.
ESSENTIAL JOBS CHECKLIST FOR
OCTOBER
- Bring in tender perennials, trim and
store in a frost-free place
- Mulch your border with homemade compost
- Start a new compost heap
- Compost summer bedding and plant up
containers with bulbs and winter bedding
- Plant bulbs in the garden.
Last Chance To…
Sow a new lawn
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TOPICAL TIPS FOR OCTOBER
- Continue to plant bulbs in the open
garden. Enrich the soil in the planting hole with a sprinkling
of J Arthur Bower's Bonemeal
- This is also a good time of year to plant
new shrubs and perennials. The warmth in the soil will help
them to get quickly established. Be generous with the planting
mixture (see Quick Tips) and be sure to water in well in dry
weather
- At this time of year the amount of
material suitable for composting multiplies alarmingly. Summer
bedding, trimmings from perennials and fallen leaves will all
rot down, so don't waste them. Use up all your existing
homemade compost to mulch around established borders or to add
to planting mixtures for new acquisitions. Then start a new
compost heap. Always mix together the different materials –
this helps decomposition. Whether you favour a purpose-made
compost container, such as J Arthur Bower's Garottabin, or an
open heap, you'll find that the addition of a biological
compost maker will help you produce high quality compost
easily and cheaply. Choose from the Garotta and Biotal range
- October is a good time of year to move
established evergreens and conifers. Get a friend to help and
dig them up with the biggest rootball you can manage. Prepare
the new planting site well with lots of your favourite
planting mixture – make sure to include J Arthur Bower's
bonemeal to boost root formation. Then water in very well.
You'll need to continue for several weeks until the plant
becomes established
- Dig up dahlias as soon as frost blackens
the foliage. Cut back the stems to about 10 cm (4 inches) and
remove as much soil as possible before standing the plants
upside-down for about a week to allow them to dry out. Store
the tubers in boxes, covered with slightly damp peat. If you
don't have a frost-free greenhouse or shed, you can keep the
tubers in a spare bedroom or unheated porch
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- If blackspot or rust has been a problem
try and pick off infected leaves as far as you can and dispose
of them – don't put them on the compost heap. If they fall
to the ground and blow about they will spread the infections
next year.
- Send off for specialist catalogues and
choose new varieties for next year.
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- New lawns can be laid or sown on
well-prepared sites
- Scarify established lawns with a rake,
then aerate with a fork if you haven't done it already.
There's still time to use J Arthur Bower's Autumn Lawn Food
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- Check through all pots that have been
growing in the greenhouse or that have been brought in from
the garden. Destroy any vine weevil larvae that you find
- Stop watering tuberous begonias and allow
the tops to die off. Then remove the tubers from the compost
and store in a cool, dry place
- Bring late-flowering pot-grown
chrysanthemums into the greenhouse for some late colour
- Wash shading off the windows and consider
insulating your greenhouse with bubblepack
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- As well as planting containers with bulbs
and spring bedding, consider planting a couple with small
evergreen shrubs to give a bit of structure and green through
the winter months. Euonymus, ivies and dwarf conifers are
ideal.
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- Harvest carrots and potatoes, making sure
the crops are clean and dry before you put them into storage.
Marrows can be stored once their skins have been hardened in
the sun
- Finish picking tomatoes before the plants
become diseased. You can hang up the whole plant to ripen
green trusses, or alternatively pick the fruit and ripen it
individually. Or you could always make some green tomato
chutney!
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- To ensure a supply of fresh mint during
winter dig up some roots and plant them 5cm (2 inches) deep in
a seed tray in J Arthur Bower's Multi-Purpose Compost. Keep
the tray in the greenhouse.
- Clumps of chives can also be put into
pots and brought into the greenhouse
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- Prepare site for planting bare-rooted
fruit trees and bushes. No fruit trees like poor drainage so
if your soil is heavy add plenty of Silvaperl grit or gravel
as well as organic matter when you dig it over
- Finish harvesting autumn-fruiting
raspberries and cut down all the canes that have fruited this
year
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- Clear decaying foliage from waterlilies
and other marginals in pools. Also clear fallen leaves from
the water
- At the end of the month remove any pumps
and filters, clean them out and store until spring
- Continue to feed fish until the end of
the month, cutting down gradually on the amount you give them
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- Rooted cuttings should be planted out
before the end of the month. If they're rather tiny keep them
in pots until the spring.
- Renew the writing on labels that are
starting to fade otherwise you may find that winter rain
washes away the writing altogether
- Some alpines with woolly or hairy leaves
hate winter rain. You can protect them with tiny open-ended
cloches made from large lemonade bottle sliced horizontally.
Fasten the cloches down with wire
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NEED MORE HELP?
Look at our information pages. The aim is to
cut out the mystique that surrounds many common tasks, and to
explain in a simple way, why and how to do them. This way, we hope
to help you enjoy your garden more, and get the best out of it.
Under each topic, you'll also find a guide
to the wide range of J Arthur Bower's products available to help
you with that particular task. The choice is yours.
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