As the days grow longer and the soil warms up, spend some time on a little flower tending and appreciation.
What to plant in October
October gardening is all about planting and anticipation. And, of course, enjoying all the beauty abounding. The month is the peak rhododendron flowering time. Make a note to visit a rhodie garden near you and revel in the most spectacular glory. Roses, clematis and flag irises, too, are at their finest this and next month.
What are the stakes?
For a variety of reasons staking tomatoes is not always feasible. Fortunately, not all tomato varieties need stakes or support. Determinate or bush tomatoes are more compact and well suited to smaller gardens and container growing, hanging baskets even. They generally mature more quickly than indeterminate tomatoes. On the downside, they have a shorter growing season and tend to ripen all at once, compared to indeterminates that will continue growing for months, usually until the first frost or prolonged cold kills them.
Coddle the little ones
Whether they be home-germinated or bought, vegetable and flower seedlings are lined up ready to go in when the soil and air warms up enough. Even in cooler districts it pays to buy the seedlings early and grow them under shelter at home – a sunny windowsill or veranda is the perfect place to house them for a few weeks. The benefit is often more choice and bigger plants to pop in the garden. Do not let them get leggy though – should they start to grow spindly, it will pay to place them outside in the morning and bring them back inside in the late afternoon.
Support mechanism
Put in stakes, cages and other support mechanisms around tall perennials and bulbs now to avoid damaging more mature roots and to allow the plants to grow up through them. This is much easier than trying to corral wayward and over-zealous growth later in the season and protects heavy blooms. Plants most likely to need help include delphiniums, peonies, daylilies, lilies, gladioli and dahlias.
Steal this look
Distinct and personal, this charming courtyard garden is a masterclass in restrained yet imaginative design. The focal point is the variegated holly tree; its canopy raised high and pruned into a shallow cone perfectly proportioned to compliment the circular concrete planter. The creamy tones of the spiky holly leaves are echoed in the variegated ivy around the tree’s base, which here spasmodically spills out and over the planter. With still more subtle but effective repetition, the golden hues of the moss on the concrete mirror those in the encircling buxus blocks, themselves edged in cream bricks. The pea gravel is pale grey, freckled with cream. This muted landscaping and foliage enable the chosen flowers to shine. Now it is a flurry of regal purple petunias; come spring it may be fire-engine red tulips. In winter the beds are devoid of annuals, allowing the bright-red holly berries – and the tizz of small birds attracted to them – to really stand out.
Landscape 101
Often overlooked as the poor cousin in the flower family and considered a little downmarket even, annuals can play a valuable role in garden design. Strictly speaking, an annual is a plant that does its thing – germinates, grows, flowers, sets seeds and dies – within a year. However, some short-lived, cold-sensitive perennials, such as nasturtiums, alyssum, snapdragons and petunias, are regularly lumped in with annuals. In warmer zones, without the cold to slay them, they may live way longer than a year.
While many garden’s most charming flowers are annuals (think nigella, above, larkspur, cornflowers, poppies or Queen Anne’s lace), it is easy to appreciate the reasons for some distaste reserved for annuals. Over-breeding, where the size (big) and colour (bright) of a flower triumph over anything else, has frequently resulted in gaudy, unsightly, top-heavy freaks. Their ugliness can be compounded by the popularity of bedding plant displays, in which the annuals are packed together, often in patterns and alarming colour combinations, with little or no foliage to soften the bright clashes.
So what’s so good about annuals? Many are very pretty and are useful for filling gaps in the garden – around the base of trees in pots or in containers to add colour.
They often flower for far longer than perennials and bulbs. While perennials put their energy into their roots, getting established and preparing for the next year, annuals just have to concentrate on flowering to attract pollinators, at which they are pretty efficient. Then they set seed, many germinating readily ensuring a long-time supply. On the other hand, dying off at the end of each season makes them perfect for commitment-phobic or capricious gardeners. Usually easy to grow from seed, often through direct sowing into the garden, they enable bulk plantings – a feat often expensive or time-consuming is using perennials. Many self-seed readily, ensuing years supplies without too much ado.
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