GARDENING UPDATE

WHILE AUTUMN SEEMS LIKE THE HARBINGER OF DARK TIMES IN THE GARDEN, I AM ALWAYS A LITTLE RELIEVED TO SEE THE HOT DAYS OF AUGUST FADE AWAY. I quite enjoy the quiet that seems to descend as we settle back into routines and the busier tourism season slows. There are still lovely things about the west coast garden in fall and there is always work to be done!

Now is the time to clear away garden debris, remove spent annuals past their prime, pull up remnants from the summer veggie patch, and generally weed and tidy the garden beds. Don’t forget to drain your garden hoses and irrigation systems and get them ready for winter, as well as clean and repair garden tools and equipment. But there is still time for planting too, as October is prime time for putting in perennials and spring bulbs for next year’s display.

Tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and crocuses are usually the first splashes of colour to emerge in the garden each year. And now is the time to pop in a few bulbs here and there, or perhaps create a dedicated cutting garden for bringing these early beauties inside next year. For me there was nothing more uplifting this spring when the pandemic had us confined at home, than to look out and see my tulips in bloom! The options in colour and form are remarkable and there are still many bulbs available at local nurseries, but don’t delay!

For me perennials are the backbone of any garden and now is the time to tuck them into their new homes with enough time to establish a good root system before they hunker down for the winter months. And if, like me, you tend to buy more plants than you need, don’t leave them to overwinter in pots, just pop them out and into your resting veggie bed while you decide how best to fit them in next spring! This year I am on the hunt for some new additions to bolster the perennial beds. My vibrant purple asters are spectacular right now, which reminded me I could use some more late-season colour. And a new bed outside of my fenced yard will need some deer resistant plants, so white lavender, fountain grass, and rudbeckia, are on my list. Also had my eye on some agastache and euphorbia. Hmm… perhaps it’s time to make another trip to the nursery to pick up some new favourites before they close for the season. See you there!

“If it is true that one of the greatest pleasures of gardening lies in looking forward, then the planning of next year’s beds and borders must be one of the most agreeable occupations in the gardener’s calendar. This should make October and November particularly pleasant months, for then we may begin to clear our borders, to cut down those sodden and untidy stalks, to dig up and increase our plants, and to move them to other positions where they will show up to greater effect. People who are not gardeners always say that the bare beds of winter are uninteresting; gardeners know better, and take even a certain pleasure in the neatness of the newly dug, bare, brown earth.”

—Vita Sackville-West (1892 -1962) Novelist, Poet, Garden Designer

Learn about the formal gardens at Sissinghurst Castle, created by Sackville-West and her husband, between 1930 and 1939.

Visit: historicengland.org.uk