Autumn is a great time for planting
Everyone thinks that spring is the best time to plant things. Not necessarily so! It’s a good time, and one of the traditional times, but so is autumn too. The truth is that with the advent of container grown plants it’s possible to plant at almost any time at all, but the best results will normally come by planting when the ground is warm and the soil is moist. In general this happens in spring and in autumn, but the difference is that in spring the ground will continue to warm, and may even dry out. In addition the plant will be torn between putting it’s energy into developing roots or developing top growth. In autumn, as the top growth dies back or goes to sleep for winter it will only put energy into developing a really good root system during the dormant months. This will help it burst into life in spring and it will be a stronger, healthier plant as a result.
Plants which respond well to autumn planting are trees, most shrubs, and many herbaceous perennials. The exception would be any plants that are not entirely hardy, perhaps penstemon, lavender and the like, which would be best now planted in spring.
Of course autumn is also the time to plant spring flowering bulbs, and every year the selection just seems to get bigger and better. We’re just starting to have all our bulbs arrive now, along with the winter flowering pansies and violas. It seems like two minutes since everyone was putting in their summer bedding, and here we are rolling out the winter stock!
Speaking of winter, and thoughts are already turning to Christmas. We’ve been asked quite a lot already if we are going to do Christmas trees this year, and after much deliberation and debate we’ve concluded the answer is yes. As always the intention is to make sure they are good quality and represent value for money though.
As the year has gone on we’ve built an increasing collection of mostly, but not exclusively, garden related giftware, and have been delighted to hear how many people have felt we “have some lovely things for sale”. We have hand made candles, ducks in wellingtons, musically tuned wind chimes, and beautiful dried flower arrangements amongst other things already, with exquisite silk flowers soon arriving. We’d love you to come down and take a look. Oh, and if you still can’t decide, then of course we still do National Garden Gift Vouchers!