CATCH UP ON AUTUMN JOBS
Remove fruit and flowers and clean your tools, says Ruth
THE Indian summer, coupled with our location on the south coast, means that many plants that should have been long gone by now are still putting out a few flowers. A couple of summer bedding plants are still struggling on, but really they need to go to make room for winter bedding or to allow for a thick layer of mulch to be added to borders. Removing these plants also gets rid of potential pest and disease hotspots when the plants die off in the colder weather.
I have also removed a few small figs that grew too late to ripen properly. Our ‘Brown
Turkey’ has been in the ground for around two years and this summer was its first fruiting. Thanks to the long hot spell, it provided us with handfuls of delicious fruits, but a few didn’t ripen in time.
These are the ones to remove now as they won’t come to anything if left. However, don’t take off any pea-sized embryonic fruits you find as they will remain on the fig throughout the winter and hopefully ripen next year.
I use this quieter time before the onset of winter to start tidying away tools and other equipment I won’t need until next spring. Like many gardeners, I suspect, I have duplicates of most things, so spare secateurs and shears are cleaned, oiled and sharpened before storing. Electric cables are coiled and hooked out of the way in the shed, and pots and trays are cleaned and stacked. I donate our unwanted plastic pots to the local garden centre’s container recycling scheme to stop them ending up in landfill. Here at AG we are campaigning for a reduction in the amount of one-use plastic found in horticulture, as in many areas black pots are unsuitable for kerbside recycling schemes. If possible, please wash and reuse your containers or drop them off at your garden centre recycling bin.