Autumn clean

Autumn – it is not just about sweeping leaves. For me it is the season when most of the gardening work is done. Many jobs can be left until spring but “one year’s weed is seven years’ seed” and there is also nothing more satisfying than safely “tucking in” your garden for the winter.

Jobs you can do this month.

• If you have a particularly weedy border with nasty pernicious weeds like couch grass and ground elder, dig it all out thoroughly. It may seem a lot of work at the time but you will be rewarded several times over by time saved in the following years.

• Do your herbaceous perennials display any bald spots? When plants like geraniums get thin in their centre it is time to cut them up and divide. Slice the plant into pieces leaving each a good balance of foliage and roots. Before returning to the leaner plant to the soil, refresh the ground with new organic matter to replace depletion micronutrients.

• Autumn is a good time to de-clutter while you still remember what was where. Too much diversity can create a very chaotic space. Place small plants in groups of three, five, seven etc, for a cohesive, calm atmosphere. Plus, there is nothing like dark brown, freshly weeded soil to calm the situation and contrast well with any remaining foliage.

• Does your garden feel a little static with too many dense, green evergreen shapes? Try reducing the evergreen content by reducing their foliage in two or three stages. They will come back with more vigor next year.

• If you are nervous about pruning, thin the shrub’s canopy so more light stimulates the production of shoots below. This will then give you confidence to remove the rest of the old canopy at a later date. Fatsias respond well to this technique. Remember with grafted plants, like viburnums and lilacs, do not cut too close to the rootstock to prevent stimulating suckers, which are best removed where seen.

• Lifting the canopy of a tree offers instant gratification. By removing small branches you create clean lines that can turn a cotinus, viburnum, laurel or holly, etc, into stylish multi-stem mini trees.

• Be careful how you prune. Round blob-shaped shrubs act as visual full stops; place them where you want the eye to rest. A cluster of “blobs” is a visual traffic jam. These get created when hedge trimmers or shearers are used to prune lots of small branches on the same curved plane. For a more natural look use secateurs to remove individually branches at different lengths. It takes longer but the effect worth it.

Published in ‘at Home’ a supplement of the Scotland on Sunday on 10 October 2010