It is (almost) not too late to:

Make sure you prune your early-summer flowering shrubs and (once-flowering) old shrub roses, cutting out old flowering shoots to reveal the new growth that will flower next year.  Older bushes may need a major stem cut out from ground level to encourage the whole framework to renew itself.  You can also give June-clipped box hedges that look a bit shaggy a neatening trim – in fact this is a good time to cut other evergreen hedges too.

Cut back and feed June/July-flowering perennials (even delphiniums) with a soluble fertilizer (wormery fluid, comfrey or sea weed, for example).  Some perennials will come back and flower again this summer – but make sure you take the opportunity to renew slug defences.  Alchemilla mollis and cat mint will come back from severe shearing, while borders generally benefit from the removal of excess, tired foliage, which can all be composted.  Keep on deadheading all plants – except those plants that carry good-looking bird-friendly seed heads.

It is all systems go in the vegetable patch this month.  Garden hygiene is important in order to minimize pests and diseases. But when clearing up and composting the debris of old crops, remember to leave the roots of legumes (peas and beans) in the soil for a few more weeks. This insures that they introduce all their nitrogen back into the soil – valuable fertiliser for next season’s leafy crops.

Tags: Autumn, Garden, Helen Yemm, Watering

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 1:14 pm and is filed under Helen's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.