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Frog Blog...
October 2010
This really is about the busiest month of the year in your garden. Leaves begin to fall from trees, and summer flowers are mostly finished, and need to be cleared.
It's the time for planting bulbs of next spring's tulips, narcissus, hyacinth and many others.
October is also the time to plant new trees, shrubs and perennials. This "planting window" lasts from about mid-October through November and December into early January, and although you can often plant safely until February, really the earlier in this "winter window" you plant, the better.
The reasons for this are to do with roots and leaves. Plants take in water through roots, and lose water through leaves. The act of taking a plant from the ground or a pot, and putting it into new soil damages the roots, however careful you are, and the plant needs time to re-estabilish its roots, and especially to grow new root hairs, the microscopic growths on roots which actually do the work of picking up water. These root hairs are always damaged by handling of the roots, and they need time to re-grow. Because plants lose water through their leaves, it's far better to give them a chance to grow these new roots when they don't have any leaves. Simple!!
But even evergreen trees, shrubs and perennials, which have leaves in the winter, benefit greatly from transplanting in the winter, because they too lose much less water through those evergreen leaves during the cold, damp days of winter.
So much for when to plant. How about what to plant?
Perennials first. Here are some ideas - for late summer colour - try: rudbeckia (big yellow daisys), aster (smaller blue/pink/white daisys), dahlia (all colours - big striking flowers), crocosmia (fiery red), anemone hupehensis (pink, white) sedum spectabile (pink, white), verbena bonariensis (purple), nerine Bowdenii (bulbous perennial -deep pink flowers), heliopsis (big yellow daisys).
Or a nice flowering shrub - hybiscus syriacus (big blue, pink or white hybiscus flowers), hydrangea (many types flower late into autumn), campsis (a climber - big orange trumpets), hebe ('Autumn glory'), abelia, osmanthus (fragrant flowers - white, yellow, orange-yellow).
Many shrubs give fabulous displays of autumn berries, such as pyracantha (orange, yellow or red), cotoneaster (red), callicarpa (unusual purple), euonymus europaeus (spindle tree - red berries) or symphoricarpus (snowberry - white).
And don't forget the best of all, the edible fruits and berries - apples, pears, blackberries, blueberries and many others are easy to grow, and can all be planted right now, for a great crop of home-grown fruit this time next year!
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Archive...
October 2010
August / September 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
February 2010
January 2010
Fruit and Veg
Obsessive Tidiness
Irrigation
Foxes and Pets
Knotweed Control
Tree Surgery Advise
Horse Chestnut
Mycorrhizal Root Treatment
Water Conservation
The Vine Weevil
Water - The Garden Lifeblood
Climate Change & Bug Life
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