OH NO. It's those Gardening tips again!

[Gardenman]

Hope you all had a good summer. We did, we have been the busiest we've ever been & taken on 5 great new staff to help out. So before you put those tools away & lock your patio doors on your gardens, here's that dreadful man to nag you into doing yet more tasks in your garden! But, at least you will have a lovely garden come next spring.

I am hearing we are due a hard/cold winter, so don't say I didn't warn you.

So off we go:

1. To add some wonderful colour next year, go & spend copious amounts of money on new bulbs & get them planted up while the soil is still warm. There are so many varieties now. Plant them in large clumps for maximum effect. Also plant out winter flowering pansies & my favourites Hellebores ( Christmas roses) I can't bring my self to mention wall flowers, so I won't!!😀

2. Lawns. If there is a lot of moss, scarify with a tine rake really hard, or one of those scarifier if you don't need the exercise! Then aerate every 6 inches ( in old money!) with a fork. Give the lawn its last mow leaving the grass an inch high. Then give the lawn a top dressing of top soil, Autumn feed, light sand ( kiln dried or play sand) & seed.

It is also a good time of year to lay new lawns as they wont be too disturbed while your indoors keeping warm for the rest of the winter!

3. Prune climbing roses & tie in well to prevent wind rock. Very noisy 😀😀. Prune shrub roses if they have lost their flowers, or just cut back to the third bud of dead rose buds. Half prune Buddlejahs, Cornus & Laveteras. Collect seeds in a brown bag while your doing this, for planting out in early spring.

Trim deciduous hedges lightly to keep their shape over winter & cut back all evergreen hedges & shrubs for the last time this year. Cut back herbaceous perennials.

4. Harvest your Apples, Pears & other fruits. Please give them to your neighbours or favourite gardener if you don't want them, but please don't waste them. They can be used in many ways. All recipes welcome 😋

5. Still with me?? Well done. For your free plants, divide your herbaceous perennials by cutting in half with two spades. Move any tender plants into a shaded area or greenhouse if you have one. If not possible, buy a horticultural fleece to cover them when you know snow or heavy frost is on its way.

6. This is a good time to move or plant trees, shrubs, climbers & hedges because, as said the soil is still warm & there is a good stock of bare root trees & hedges at a more reasonable price at your nursery, if there are any out there that haven't been knocked down for development!!!

7. Put nets over ponds to prevent leaves getting in. Before you do, take out pumps & debris. Give the pump a clean & service & store in a dry place. Take water timers off the taps & store them as well after taking the batteries out.

When's he going to stop!!!

8. Turn your compost heap over if you have any strength left! 😴

9. And when you do get indoors reduce watering of indoor plants & plant up some lovely Hyacinths ready for Christmas, a lovely job to do with the kids. Also plant Amaryllis for the new year.

Finished at last,but just to say, if any of you have older or disabled neighbours, we are offering as a means of saying thank you for such a great summer of work a days free work in their garden to tidy up & bring their garden back for them to enjoy. Only if they want us to! There will be 3 of us & me or if preferred without me!! To get the work done.

Thank you for reading. Happy gardening & as always if you are too busy, too tired, or too rich, then please give your money to any of the well recommended & fabulous gardeners on the forum. Or us!

This is a great time of year for larger gardening projects in order to have a beautiful garden for spring.

Nigel

Exterior Design Gardens

Sunderland court

Lordship lane

SE22 8JX

07961888253

[Gardenman]

I can't believe I forgot to bore you about tidying the leaves off your borders & lawns. Trees are very clever & take all the toxins out of our air & then drop them beneath them to prevent anything growing around them. The consequence is your lawn & plants get poisoned!! So, get your rakes & blowers out regularly & make some nice compost. I'll be round to check!!

[DovertheRoad]

I like this Gardenman cat....

[red devil]

Thanks for the timely tips Nigel, happy leaf collecting!...

[Horizontal]

Get off your butts, you lazy home owners, do your own gardens. I'll give you a few tips, buy a mattock and a spade, some digestive biscuits,tea bags and get stuck in. Revolt against these, seed sucking, deck spoiling, shed wrecking vampires. RHS my botty!!

[Gardenman]

Just a reminder, that we have not received any requests for the free days gardening for your neighbours if they are old, infirm,or disabled. We don't have too much work coming in at the moment & I need to keep my guys in work. So please give me a call if you think we can help. But as said only if your neighbours want this.

Nigel