LAST CHANCE TO PLANT OUT
Ruth gets the remainder of her plants in the ground
Time to get the last of your plants in the ground
IALWAYS think of the last week of October as a time for battening down the hatches. Looking around, there are still things I need to do before everything goes dormant.
I have several plants that need getting in, including a few young foxgloves grown from seed this year. They are the white variety ‘Alba’ and will look stunning against the fresh green foliage of early summer. Most of ones in the garden are the traditional pink variety, so these will make a lovely contrast.
This is still a good time for planting here in the south, as the weather has yet to dip below freezing, the ground is still warm and regularly dampened by rain.
Plants that are put in now still have several weeks left to put on root growth before they fall dormant.
One of the main aims of our garden is to create a haven for wildlife and insects by growing as wide a variety of native trees and insect-friendly plants as possible. As a result it isn’t groomed and pruned to within an inch of immaculate perfection, nor planted in a regimental fashion. However, there are times when favoured plants self-seed with gay abandon and their offspring take root where they are not wanted. This is a common problem with Verbena bonariensis, which has a tendency to procreate willy-nilly. We have several errant seedlings shooting up too close to their parent, so this week I have relocated them so they have more space to flourish. Planting and moving also gives you an opportunity to give borders a health check. Dig over the soil, remove weeds – they flourish in warm, damp autumns – and check for pests. And don’t forget that if you lift a seedling and have nowhere to plant it immediately, you can pot it up for the winter and plant it out next spring.