One of the soggiest summers on record couldn’t drown the party spirit but the after-effects are rather more of a curate’s egg. Pumpkins hate the wet and cold, which could make for a tame Hallowe’en (unless you suck up the supermarket airmiles). Yet experts are forecasting a towering inferno of autumn colour, all due to the same dodgy weather. As gardeners know, there’s always a meteorological upside. Just remember when you’re planting new trees or planning new beds, this is likely to be the globally warmed status quo.
TOP PROJECTS
TEA BREAK
MULTIPLY YOUR LILIES
1 Snap plump scales off a mature bulb and keep in a plastic bag of dampened perlite and peat substitute, in the warm and dark, for six weeks until bulbils form for potting on.
LUNCH HOUR
Weed your tights drawer
1 Recycle holey tights as soft ties to protect young trees against wind rock.
2 Stretch a pair over a metal coat hanger to skim dead leaves off the pond.
3 Hang up to store onions and tender bulbs, then fill another leg with cat litter to absorb damp around them.
4 Bag up soap slivers in a foot for washing muddy hands.
DAY OFF
Make the bed
1 Get ahead for hectic spring and give the worms a chance to move in early. The ideal position is on level ground, oriented north-south so that all crops get a shot at the sunlight.
2 Avoid treated wood near food crops. Instead, use old scaffolding boards, untreated planks 2in (5cm) thick and 6in (15cm) wide, or recycled plastic Link-a-bord (01773 590566; linkabord.co.uk). Bricks and stone harbour slugs.
3 If couch grass is a problem, sit the frame on a wide collar of cardboard, then fill to the brim. Well-rotted farmyard manure or home-made compost will crumble to sowing consistency over winter. Firm down.
WEEKEND
Grass up your garden
1 A fortnight before laying your lawn, dig out deep-rooted perennial weeds, then hoe or flame-gun any new ones that appear. You’ll need at least 4in (10cm) of topsoil if turfing over hardcore.
2 Ask your supplier when they’ll cut the turf; it should be the day of or before delivery.
3 Wait until after it rains, then lay the first row along your longest straight edge. Use planks to walk on that row while you lay the next. Fit the turfs tightly together, staggering the joins like brickwork.
4 Tamp down at intervals and cut to shape with an old bread knife.
5 If it turns dry, give the lawn a thorough soaking. Don’t walk on it until the grass has rooted or you’ll make ghostly footprints.
6 Stack sods from the old lawn you’re replacing grass-to-grass and earth-to-earth to make top-quality compost; or each one grass-down, with a whack to compact them, to build a wall or windbreak.
5 OF THE BEST
MUST-DO JOBS
1PLANT biennial wallflowers early this month, in free-draining ground, leaving room to slip tulip bulbs between them in a few weeks.
2 LIFT AND DIVIDE overcrowded asters, phlox and grasses so that they can bed down before the first frost.
3 REFRESH strawberry beds with the young plants you grew from runners. Keep their crowns just above the soil.
4 CUT BACK and compost rotting border foliage, leaving seed heads for the birds and winter interest.
5 HARVEST early leeks, autumn cauliflowers and sprouts. Sow overwintering peas and broad beans.
HALF-TERM OUTDOOR FUN
1 CARVE PUMPKINS after cutting and curing them in the sun. Try a bike light inside, instead of a candle, for strobing ghoulishness.
2 CHASE LEAVES and collect them in a home-made wire bin to rot down into soil conditioner.
3 FORAGE FOR CHESTNUTS for conker fights (horse) and roasting (sweet) – yum, yum.
4 MAKE A BONFIRE to burn perennial weeds, compost-proof and diseased prunings, and evergreen leaves. Use the ash to balance the pH level in the compost heap or to feed potash-hungry currants and gooseberries next year.
5 BREW UP A FAT BALL for the birds with one part lard or suet, melted, to two parts bird seed, oats, dried fruit, nuts (not peanuts), even cheese. Mould in a yogurt pot with string threaded through the bottom.
TREES TO PLANT FOR GORGEOUS BARK
1 RIVER BIRCH Pinkish-brown bark peels in curls to reveal cream underneath. Go for the naturally multi-stemmed Betula nigra 'Little King’.
2 SNAKEBARK MAPLE Crimson or jade green bark with silver filigree striations. For blazing lipstick red, try Acer x conspicuum 'Phoenix’.
3 HIMALAYAN BIRCH Colours range from chocolate through orange to gleaming white, like the fast-growing Betula utilis var. jacquemontii 'Doorenbos’, which is decorative even as a young tree.
4 TIBETAN CHERRY The bordeaux-coloured bark of Prunus serrula permanently looks as though it has just had a good wax and polish.
5 PAPERBARK MAPLE The cinnamon bark sloughs off Acer griseum like partystreamers.
IN MY GARDEN
ARABELLA LENNOX-BOYD, SIX-TIME CHELSEA GOLD MEDALLIST AND WINNER OF BEST IN SHOW
REPLANTING THE WHITE BORDER I can’t wait to tackle jobs I’ve been longing to do all summer. The soil is still warm and, unlike spring, the plants have their foliage, which makes it easier to see what you’re doing. In front of the house are summer plants like Campanula latifolia var. alba and Thalictrum delavayi 'Album’. I’ll be adding the later flowering and elegant Lysimachia clethroides, Agastache rugosa white form, Selinum wallichianum and many Galtonia candicans.
PUTTING AWAY THE DAHLIAS After planning next year’s positions, I’ll remove the dahlias from pots dotted on the terrace and empty spaces in the herbaceous borders, then store them in peat in a dry place. Except for occasionally damping down the peat, I’ll forget about them till spring.
PRUNING THE ROSES I have already pruned the banksia on our south wall but October is the month for pruning all the ramblers. I wait as long as possible in order to enjoy their large trusses of orange hips, which I add to autumn foliage, late-flowering asters and Clematis vitalba for decoration in the house.
STOCKING UP FOR WINTER LUNCH I’ll harvest the borlotti, dry them and then store them for delicious soup.
Arabella Lennox-Boyd has created a 12-acre garden at her home, Gresgarth Hall, Lancashire. Her new book 'Designing Gardens’ is £25, from Frances Lincoln
SHORT CUTS: HOW TO CREATE A VINTAGE-STYLE GARDEN
• Choose items that are old (more than 20 years) but not too old (under 100), and nothing precious. Rust, peeling paint and scrapes add to the nostalgic feel.
• Mix and match pieces with individual personality to create visual contrast and don’t take it too seriously. A bad-tempered public notice can create a chuckle in the right context.
• Turn rubbish into riches; chipped teacups make charming containers for spring bulbs or tealight holders. But there’s a fine line between shabby and scruffy so lavish attention on your finds.
• Vintage comes together in the editing.
Advice from 'Gardenalia’ by Sally Coulthard (rrp £30, Jacqui Small)
PLOT TO PLATE
TOFFEE APPLES
Ingredients
6 tart crisp apples
3.5oz/100g golden caster sugar
4oz/120g Demerara sugar
1 tsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp golden syrup
1oz/25g butter, plus a little extra for greasing
Rinse the apples under very hot water and rub dry with a tea towel to remove the waxy coating. Push a lolly stick into the stalk end.
Line a baking sheet with buttered parchment. Warm the two sugars and 3.5fl oz/100ml water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves. Stir in the other ingredients.
Bring to a rolling boil and cook, without stirring, until a sugar thermometer reads 150C/300F, or a drop of mixture forms a hard ball in a glass of cold water. It takes 15 to 20 minutes but keep a close eye as toffee burns very quickly. Remove from the heat and swirl each apple to coat well, then cool on the prepared baking sheet.
This recipe comes from Gifts from the Garden by Debora Robertson (Kyle Books, £16.99). Photography by Yuki Sugiura
TOP KIT
HOT HAT
Jack Frost is threatening to crack his knuckles so bring half-hardy border perennials and tender exotics into the new overwintering plant tent. This giant fleece cloche with insulated ground sheet needs no heating. Also good for warming soil, raising spring crops and hot-housing tomatoes.
There are two widths, 2.4m (8ft) £295 or 3.4m (11ft 4in) £394 (0845 4025300; harrod horticultural.com)
BUNNY GUINNESS'S TOP TIPS
I like having a few pots or pans to give away at Christmas. If you can get some trays of Cyclamen coum in leaf, to pot into something more special, they might well be in flower in time for Christmas and look wonderful by the door to greet your festive guests.
Paperwhites are always popular, but it’s a good idea to order them now and just leave without planting (ignoring the green shoots) when they arrive.
Only plant six weeks before you want them to flower – November for Christmas. Then pot up.
In Spain they are called “meao de zorro” (fox urine). This describes the rancid smell if cut and brought inside. Pots of the bulbs smell absolutely divine.
They are hardy but need a hot, dry summer, so are often treated as annuals here.
EVENTS
OCTOBER 7
FAIR PRICES
Scampston Hall, North Yorks, hosts an autumnal plant fair. 10am to 5pm, £6 adults, £3 5-16s (01944 759111; scampston.co.uk)
OCTOBER 9 AND 10
HARVEST CELEBRATION
Giant pumpkins and apple-tasting at the RHS London Harvest Festival Show (rhs.org.uk/Shows-Events) at Lindley Hall, SW1. Tues 10am to 9pm, Wed to 5pm; entry £5, members free (0845 260 5000; rhs.org.uk//Shows-Events/ RHS-London-Flower-Shows/RHS-London-Autumn-Harvest-Show)
OCTOBER 20
MULTI-COLOURED GIVE AND TAKE
The emphasis is on heritage vegetables but bring anything you like to the Great Seed Swap at the Millennium Seed Bank, Wakehurst Place, West Sussex. 11am to 5pm; garden entry £12 (01444 894066; kew.org)
OCTOBER 23 & 25
UNDER THE HAMMER
A Dame Elizabeth Frink sculpture is up for auction at the next twice-yearly sale of garden statuary and fossil decoration at Summers Place, Billingshurst, West Sussex (01403 331331; summersplace auctions.com)
