Garden journal
The latest garden products and horticultural advice
WHAT:
WHY: Autumn is one of the best times to plant rhubarb crowns, when the soil is moist and warm. To ensure your young plant produces a crop in its first harvest, protect it from pests. Alliums, the architectural members of the onion family with their large heads of purple, blue and white flowers, have a strong aroma to keep harmful pests, such as aphids and weevils, away from your young rhubarb plants and stop them destroying the leaves and stalks. PLANT: In autumn, plant allium bulbs at a depth of about four times the diameter of the bulb, in a sunny, sheltered site, in freedraining soil. Low maintenance and drought tolerant, most flower in May and June, with a few later bloomers, while the seedheads are loved by wildlife.
ROYAL RETAIL
Support the work of the RHS gardening charity by treating yourself to potting shed essentials from its new online shop. This Beetles kneeler, £15, and twine in a tin, £6, feature a design inspired by an engraving from its Lindley Library..
IT’S A COVER UP Things can get a little muddy and messy in the garden at this time of year, so protect clothes with this canvas gardener’s apron, £25, National Trust Shop
GREEN FINGERS Hands can suffer in the colder weather after a day spent planting and clearing in the garden, so give them a dose of therapy with Heathcote & Ivory’s In the Garden barrier cream, £7. You could then reuse the tub, decorated with pretty hand-drawn illustrations, for storing seeds or plant labels..