Planning for autumn days

The season for planting and making changes

- Ruth Hayes

WHO says spring and summer are the best and busiest time of the gardening year? Hopefully no one, because while they may be the most colourful, it’s largely down to the work that we all put in through autumn and winter.

We are now at the tail end of summer and looking forward to the golden days of ‘the fall’. The weather may not be as good and the days are shorter but I always think these weeks carry a huge sense of anticipation around with them.

We are in the season of clearing and planning, when we can clear the decks and start again if necessary, or add to and alter what we have got.

I have several tasks already pencilled in for the coming weeks, starting with improving our poor, chalky soil with sacks of homemade compost and locally sourced well-rotted manure, removing a dead Philadelphus (and deciding what to put in its place) and creating a sense of order in our overgrown front garden.