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Not quite summer & not quite autumn, September can be the most schizophrenic of months. Blazing days & cool nights vie with dreary downpours & muggy evenings for the most common of days, but September heralds the season that is most dear to gardeners’ hearts, the planting season. Now is the time to consider those changes that you have considered over the long hazy days of summer. If you saw my column earlier in the year on bulbs, then consider this a reminder that your priority in the first instance is to peruse your bulb catalogues, (or browse the internet which is much easier), & order your bulbs as soon as possible as the really good varieties disappear quickly.
I have listed my top bulbs before but treat this as a quick reference guide. Best tulip: ‘Abu Hassan’, best small daffodil: ‘Jetfire’, large daffodil: ‘King Alfred’, most desirable genus: Fritillaria, most underrated genus: Ipheon, & my ‘every garden should have one…’ is Allium christophii. You really need to be planting in October to get a good spring show but if the frosts ease off until Christmas then the season is prolonged. Bulbs all need different soil & placement considerations, but always allow plenty of root room in the planting hole & fill with plenty of the preferred medium (for example, Fritillarias prefer well rotted compost & Nerines prefer gravel). Placement is always tricky, as you do need to balance the colour, height & order of flowering. For instance, if you wish to plant colours that could clash then you should ensure that the flowering periods don’t overlap, & similarly if your colours complement each other & they flower together then make sure that the heights are such that one will be seen over the top of the other. Nice & straightforward then…. When planting a complete bed it is as well to plan it first as it can always become disparate & muddled if you start by buying the plants & then trying to fit them in. Several ‘rules of thumb’ apply to creating a bed so bear these points in mind. - Assess the ground conditions & aspect of where you want to create a bed. Check soil type & quality, exposure & shade. Think about the site in winter & summer as both seasons can affect the health of the plants. (A waterlogged site in winter can be a dustbowl in summer, & some plants will not tolerate both.)
- Add plenty of the compost / manure / gravel that is required to create the correct soil conditions for your chosen style of planting & dig over to a sufficient depth for the plants to flourish. Peat creates an acidic environment whereas mushroom compost will tend towards alkalinity. If in doubt use ‘soil conditioner’ as it is invariably neutral.
- Choose plants carefully to create a breadth of seasonal colour & effect. Start your list with early flowering plants & winter effect, & then list the months with the plants written in when they feature. You will see what overlaps & where your barren patches will be. This is also the time when you need to pay particular attention to colour – mistakes made now will grate next year.
- Consider the structure of the planting. Many plants ‘perform’ for only a short part of the year & then have to act as background or support for later plants. Really concentrate on the mature size of your main plants & try to understand their rates of growth. If you put too many fast growing plants in one space for immediate effect then you will have the galling task of taking half of them out again next winter. Classic mistakes in the instant garden format are the Mile-a-minute or Russian Vine, & the insidious Lavatera or Shrub Mallow. Too big, too soon creates too much of a problem.
- Fill in short term spaces with annual plants purchased in the spring. This will hide your spaces whilst not unduly impeding the growth of the new plants.
My best tip for planting is to look at examples of the type of bed you wish to plant. Look at the type of plants, the spacing & the combinations. Don’t copy but learn from them, then interpret the design for your own plot… Enjoy your digging & I’ll catch up with you next month when I’ll be talking trees. |
