Greenhouse and House Plants
- Tidy up the greenhouse now and do not over-water or splash water about to reduce grey mould disease
- Continue to train and side-shoot tomatoes and cucumbers. Allow only existing fruit to develop. Remove pea-sized green tomatoes and unwanted flowers and trusses.
- Take cuttings of evergreen shrubs, such as camellia and rhododendron, and root them in pots of compost with sand added. Some bottom heat in a propagator is an advantage in rooting these plants.
Fruit, Vegetables and Herbs
- Do not let weeds go to seed now, especially chickweed, to avoid building up trouble for years to come.
- Raspberry and tayberry canes that have finished fruiting could be pruned out and the new canes tied into position.
- Finish off any remaining summer pruning of over-vigorous apples and pears, shortening the long whippy shoots to about finger length.
- Plant out new strawberry runners while the gorund is in good condition, and prepare for planting other fruits later in autumn.
- Control all weeds and dig the soil deeply, ensuring that it is a sunny site with deep well-drained soil.
Lawn
- Continue mowing regularly but not too tightly
- Prepare for sowing new lawn areas, raking away stones.
- Keep the edges neat around beds and borders.
- Lawn weedkillers can be applied but not to a wildflower lawn.
Flowers
- Buy spring bulbs and plant them as soon as possible – the fresher they are going into the ground, the better they will flower.
- Pot up thirty to fifty crocus corms in a broad shallow bowl for a terrific spring display.
- There is a last chance to take cuttings of tender plants such as geraniums, marguerites, fuchsias and argyranthemums to carry over winter.
- Continue feeding and watering baskets and other containers on a regular basis.
Trees, Shrubs and Roses
- If bindweed was a problem in shrub areas, untangle some of the stems and place them on the soil surface where they can be sprayed with Roundup without getting spray on the shrubs.
- Roundup is very effective at this time of year as the chemical is taken down into the underground root system.
- Very often young trees lose their leaves very?late as they continue to grow late in the year to build up strength.
- Shrub roses and ramblers can now be pruned by removing some of the shoots that flowered.
