How to keep your garden happy and healthy in September by Allan Longshadow, Wordworx
With summer drawing to an end and autumn fast approaching, now is the time to get your garden in order for the months ahead.
Order in the borders
As the evenings begin to draw in, the bedding plants adorning your borders will quickly die off en-masse. Unless you have hardy plants, you’ll want to dig them up, get your beds looking tidy and spread some compost over them to replenish the nutrients for next year.
Tend to the Tiles
Take the time to give tiled paths and patios a thorough surface cleaning and a good weeding between the gaps to help keep them at their best. It will also help to prevent them from becoming slippery.
Get to grips with grass
Give your lawn a good trim before the weather gets too cold and wet, and apply a good quality lawn treatment to restore sparse patches and kill back any weeds and moss growth. It’s also a good idea to add fertiliser now, to ensure healthy growth come spring.
Prepare your pond
A top tip if you have a pond in your garden – get some pond netting from a local garden centre and cover it before the leaves begin to fall. It will save you a huge amount of effort later. Hold it down with rocks or heavy planters.
House your herbs
Potted herbs smell lovely in the garden – and bringing them into shelter under a porch or other semi-enclosed space will keep them going for longer.
Top Tip
If you don’t have a porch or other shelter, a plastic greenhouse is an inexpensive way to protect longer lasting plants. Locate it in the most sheltered area, and put rocks or tiles on the base to weigh it down.
Don’t leave the leaves
Don’t allow fallen leaves to gather and linger around – as they get damper, they will be harder to clean and may cause surrounding plants and woodwork to rot. They’ll also make spring cleaning much harder.
