Another month gone already and as I open each month I tend to reflect on where we have been.

So, how was September for you? Broadly something of a mess, I think. Vegetables just stopped producing, the runner beans were the worst they have been for years, Courgettes and Marrows were dusted with mildew early in the month and just didn’t bother to offer anything after the middle of the month. A lot of fruit didn’t reach maturity, surrendering to the ravages of the wind and rain. Despite our best efforts to keep them clean, the codling moth left our Bramley apples full of holes too. I will not bother to mutter about the blight, that tickled my tomatoes to submission. I will just remind you to keep an eye on any remaining tomato or potato plants. Blight is quick, is brutal and doesn’t take prisoners. Get onto your final harvesting now.

But enough of the gloom, that month has gone and it’s time to plan for the spring. There is of course plenty of tidying up to do, but its bulb time and this is the month to make your commitment. Garden centres have plenty of choice and you can pave the way for a succession of flower to run across four months and bring joyous festivity to borders. So snowdrops and crocus offer a start point and will bring the tease of a new season in January and February, with daffodils and tulips of all shapes and sizes if you are selective extending flowers into April. Of course there are other options, so do check the displays, dwarf Irises for example are worth a look.

In the borders you can be setting out winter pansies and violas, together with wallflowers and other over wintering subjects like sweet William.

If you have space for a shrub, then this month you can seek out over wintering performers, that offer interest when the deciduous shrubs are off to bed.

Viburnum, winter honeysuckle, mahonia and sarcococca have all found ahome in our garden and all flower through the gloomy months. As space appears in the vegetable plot, you can be setting out onion sets and shallots as well as broad bean seeds towards the end of the month.

And finally, with two frosts already recorded at the time of writing, shift and protect tender things that you want to keep for next year and I try to avoid disturbing the compost heap for a few months. They will become home to overwintering wildlife.

Happy Gardening.

Chris Evans
www.dundrynurseries.co.uk
www.thebutterflygarden.org