This month sees Sedums, Japanese anemones and the Michaelmas daisies of the aster family all in full flower. If you haven’t got these in your garden perhaps you should! Pop down to your local garden centre to be inspired by the varieties and colours available at this time of year, and whatever takes your fancy you can plant now.

The idea this year of already removing those tender plants and bedding as they are still in glorious flower will soon become a necessity. It’s worth clearing those beds and borders in readiness for Winter bedding and those bulbs for Spring. When you do clear your borders, why not kill any inevitable weeds that have popped up with a fast acting weedkiller such as Weedol 2. Don’t waste all that old plant material, it should go on your compost heap!

If you have dug any dahlias, cannas or gladioli, cut off most of the flowering stem and with dahlias leave upside down in the shed or garage for moisture to drain from that stem. All these can then be stored in woodchippings or even newspaper in a box keeping frost free. With these beds clear it is not too late to plant up spring bulbs and winter bedding. Your local garden centre will be full of daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, crocus and snowdrops to provide colour from February. Just read the display labels to find out the expecting blooming time so that you can enjoy a succesion of flowers throughout the Spring. For those of you who are web surfers you can check out Simple Pleasures website with a large selection of bulbs.

If your garden is maintained by Crowthers you should have already placed your order for Winter bedding and Spring flowering bulbs.

KEN’S TIP: If you need a new lawn, now’s the time to sow one, or even lay one from turf. The conditions are just ideal. Also it’s a great time to plant fruit trees as the soil is warm and the roots will establish themselves.

If you have any tips and suggestions email us and we can add them to our site for others to share.