October Newsletter

Over the next few weeks you will see some changes at the garden centre, with the opening of our Christmas department, we will have a new entrance into the garden centre.  The area outside the new entrance area will eventually house a covered area for all of our compost.  This should be ready for the new season.

The team are busy creating the displays for Christmas and you will see this taking shape over the next couple of weeks.

Greetings Cards We are also having a refurbishment of our greeting card department and will be having some new stands and will be increasing the range by about 30%.

Autumn Planting

As Autumn settles in, we hope you are still finding joy in your garden.  October is a wonderful month to make the most of your garden spaces, with plenty of tasks to keep you busy before winter.

Now is the perfect time to plant new trees, shrubs and roses, giving them a head start for next year.  We have a great selection of trees in various sizes to suit any garden as well as a patio range for pots.
 
We have pulled together a guide for Autumn planting which will give you some guidelines and ideas to get your garden ready for next year.

Garden Maintenance

• Spike compacted lawns and brush sand and sulphate of iron into the holes to improve drainage, greens up and kills and prevents moss in lawns. Apply an autumn lawn food.
• Prune suckers away from the base of ornamental trees.
• Call in store and see the new season collection of seeds.
• Clean out bird boxes, remember that nesting birds are a useful friend in the garden.
• If using holly as a Christmas decoration, throw a net over branches to protect them from hungry birds.
• Collect and compost any fallen autumn leaves.
  
• Collect seeds and berries from shrubs and flowering plants that you want to propagate also take hard wood cuttings from Cornus, Ribes, Salix and roses.
• Plant out spring bedding, including pansies, wallflowers and forget-me-nots. Buy primroses and primulas for seasonal winter colour.
• Pile bark mulch over the crowns of hardy fuchsias, dahlias and agapanthus etc to provide winter protection.

 In the Allotment or Vegetable Patch

• Now is the time to Wrap grease bands around the trunks of fruit trees to protect them from winter moths,  We advise you to leave grease or bands on all year round to stop any crawling pests.
• Plant out Japanese onion sets and garlic.
• Prune back canes of autumn-fruiting raspberries and blackberries after harvesting also tidy strawberry beds, cutting back old foliage, runners, and removing weeds.
• Spread a thick layer of compost or farmyard manure to dig into your soil over winter.
• Sow green manure crops over bare areas of soil.
  
• Prune suckers away from the base of Fruit Trees.

In the Greenhouse

• Clear fallen leaves from greenhouse roof and gutters, clean glazing to let in maximum light and clear out old crops and growing bags, adding all to the compost heap.
• Insulate the greenhouse with bubble polythene.
• Pick and lay out green tomatoes from outdoor crops to ripen under cover or on a windowsill, speed the process up with the help of a banana.
• Chillies peppers should still be cropping so continue to harvest, if you have just picked the last crop why not try preserving them in olive oil to make chilli oil.
• Check heaters are working efficiently and buy fuel.
• Sow pots of hardy winter lettuces