Gardening at this time of year is all about keeping the show going. Keep deadheading, keep feeding etc. With some of the herbaceous perennials, deadheading can be a little more drastic. Some of the once-flowering geraniums like Johnson’s Blue, Wargrave Pink, and the brighter Psilostemon are beginning to look a little tatty and tired now ,so it is a good idea to cut the lot to the ground, give them a good water and perhaps a feed, and while they will leave a little gap for 10 days or so, they will reward you by growing fresh new foliage, and if you are very lucky and the sun continues to shine, they might make a brave effort to reflower. The same applies to catmints/Nepeta and Alchemilla. For the sterile varieties of Geranium that continuously flower throughout the season, such as Rozanne and Azure Rush, don’t be afraid to wield the secateurs on them as well if they are getting too big for their allotted space and interfering with other plants. Just cut offending stems off at the base.
While the borders are burgeoning, now is a great opportunity to get the notebook out and observe which plants are behaving as you would like, and which plants are not. Life is too short to tolerate a plant you have fallen out of love with. Dig it up and give it to a friend…. Note which plants will need division in the autumn, think about whether some plants might be better moved further back or front, or even to another border. Make note of fortuitous planting combinations and think about repeating them. If you don’t write it down and/or photograph it, you’ll forget come the winter when you are looking at a mass of dead and dying foliage.
Tomatoes should be fruiting well now, so keep feeding and pinch out the top growth to stop them forming new trusses that are unlikely to ripen before winter. As the month goes on, think about removing some of the excess foliage so light can get to the fruits to ripen them. Lettuces, kale, parsley, basil and coriander can still be sown now and don’t forget to keep picking courgettes to prevent them turning into marrows. By the end of the month the sweetcorn should have ripened, and you can test for ripeness by the browning tassels at the end of the cob and whether, if you put your fingernail into one of the kernels near the end, the juices run milky or not. If they do, you’re good to go. Grape vines should have their shoots pruned back to within two leaves of the fruit cluster to direct the plant’s energy into growing the fruit. All stone fruit trees (plums, cherries, apricots, peaches) should be pruned now, and not in the dormant season, to prevent Silver Leaf disease getting in. The strawberries have now finished fruiting but are putting out runners fast so if you want new stock, peg some of these runners down into a pot of soil and within a few weeks they will have formed roots and you can sever them from the parent plant. A bent bit of wire or even a heavy pebble will do the trick to peg them down.
Other than that enjoy the fruits of your labours and the beauty of your flowers. If you are keen to learn more about Autumn gardening, we have only a couple of spaces left on our September 18th practical gardening workshop in the grounds of Prospect House, Burton Leonard. Email us on: abrightprospectuk@gmail.com for further details. Until then – wishing you all much sun and serenity over the summer.
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