It’s time to ready your garden for Jack Frost

TIDYING out the tiny, temporary greenhouse is not my favourite job, but when the layer of compost underfoot becomes deep enough to raise a crop of potatoes, then there’s no putting it off.

A night of high winds had been enough to send trays of salads tumbling to the floor, scattering the contents, and so everything had to come out while I sorted the mess.

It’s surprising how much can find its way into a polytunnel or greenhouse over the course of the season and my tally of items that should have been in the toolshed included a spade, a fork, two patio brushes, three pairs of gloves and a large assortment of hand tools, as well as a couple of coffee mugs.

Add to that numerous stacks of empty pots and several open bags of compost and you can see how crowded things were getting.

Everything that shouldn’t be there has now been evicted, leaving space for slightly tender plants that need to be given a little winter protection such as pelargoniums, salvias, evergreen agapanthuses and all those other kinds of things that are best kept out of reach of frost.

Some parts of the country saw their first frosts several weeks ago. So far, we’ve escaped, but cold nights can’t be far off so I’m intent on providing protection for everything that needs it before they strike.

I’m also keen to dig up the remaining perennials that have still to be moved before they lose their foliage and I lose track of where they are.

These include a couple of peonies and more of the lily of the valley that runs through one entire border.

I also want to tackle the small patch of ground elder beneath the wisteria before it has a chance to spread.

It’s a tricky weed to get rid of. Just digging into it will produce small offcuts of root that will sprout into new plants, so my plan is to lift all the hardy geraniums that grow in this spot and replant them in pots of fresh compost until I’m convinced there’s no ground elder lurking among their roots.

Meanwhile I’ll sieve the soil they’ve come out of until I’m happy no fragments remain.

You never get rid of ground elder in one go. It takes vigilance over a number of years to eradicate it and then there’s still the chance it will arrive again through seeds or by rhizomes from neighbouring gardens.

The trick is to be ready for it when it comes back and to root it out before it makes itself at home.

While I’m waiting for a couple of days of dry weather to get on with this task I’ve been sowing more sweet peas.

Once they germinate they’ll put on little growth over the winter but they should romp away in spring.

There’s not much time left to make an autumn sowing, so press on now if you want an early crop of flowers.