Sorting out diminished beds
Empty annual borders and hunt down pests, says Ruth
IT is tempting, in autumn, to keep colourful annuals going for as long as possible just to extend the joy of summer. I’m as guilty of this as anyone, but have finally come to the realisation that this year’s annuals are way past their best and need to go.
Clearing borders is useful in many ways. On a cosmetic level it improves the look of borders, but it also benefits the garden long-term.
I set myself the task of stripping a border of summer annuals and adding them to the compost. What started as a quick job ended up a major task, because the more I did, the more I found that needed doing.
Dining out among the annuals were lots of slugs and snails, which were duly thrown into the road, and underneath the removed plants was a fresh crop of thriving weeds, which needed to be removed. Once the soil had been cleared and dug over – I was gratified to see it has a healthy population of earthworms – it was time to trim back some straggling border shrubs.
Autumn is a good time for pruning most shrubs as they are dormant, so their sap has retreated down the trunks which means they shouldn’t bleed when cut.
Most shrubs only need an annual trim, but some may require more cutting back if they have been neglected. Start by removing dead, diseased, damaged and congested branches, creating an open shape. If you are hard pruning the shrub and taking it right back, remember the old saying ‘look twice and cut once’ because once you have removed a branch, it is gone for good – or at least until the plant puts on considerable new growth, which may not be for a couple of years.