AUTUMN COLOUR

AUTUMN COLOUR

Summer may now be truly over, but many plants go out in a blaze of glory to cheer us up before winter sets in. As gardeners we can capitalise on this by planting trees, shrubs and even fruit bushes for both autumn colour as well as fruit and flowers. Choice is usually determined by garden size, though we can all be tempted to buy that special plant we just have to grow even though our small gardens are just not big enough for them. My weakness happened after my year at College in Chelmsford studying my National Diploma. There was a massive spectacular blue atlas cedar in the college grounds. I knew that once I got a decent garden I would have to get one. Sure enough on moving to Darlington I purchased my Cedrus atlantica glauca which had a space of about six by six feet in the back garden. I enjoyed it for about eight years before realising it was going to need my whole garden plus a few of my neighbours as well. Unfortunately it had to go.

There is so much choice that selection for garden size is easy. Other factors to consider are privacy, shelter, a specimen for the lawn, closeness to the house and even food and shelter for birds. Although my cedar will be fine in any huge garden, its beautiful blue colour lasts all year round as it is evergreen and creates a perfect background for deciduous plants with good autumn colour. However if you wish to have some conifers with good colour then try some of the deciduous ones such as larch, Gingko or swamp cypress, Taxodium, but again check space available as some can ultimately require a fair bit of room. Coming down in size, you can’t go far wrong with our range of rowan trees in Scotland. They all have dazzling scarlet foliage in autumn plus ample berries of red, pink, white or yellow. On a similar size are the maples which are one of the first to show their dazzling autumn colours, though my favourite is the Japanese maples. Acer Sangokaku will grow up to ten feet tall

with brilliant golden autumn colours followed by red stems in winter. Other maples such as Acer palmatum atropurpureum with crimson foliage in summer turns a fiery red in autumn growing to about five feet tall. Other medium sized trees worth growing for autumn colour are the flowering cherries, liquidamber, amelanchiers and upright forms of hornbeam and oak.

However if your garden is too small for a wee tree there are plenty of shrubs to use from the deciduous azaleas, hammamelis molis, Cotinus the smoke bush, chokeberry and Spiraea. There are many more large, small and ground cover shrubs with excellent autumn foliage, so it is worthwhile growing some of these together so one colour enhances the other. My Euphorbia griffithi Fireglow has turned a decent shade of yellow, but with the fiery red dwarf maple behind it they both make a great splash of colour together. Down at ground level some of the evergreen heathers take on terrific autumn colours once they get a few frosty nights, particulary Calluna Goldsworth Crimson and Golden Feather. Climbing shrubs should not be

overlooked but be careful with the dazzling red Virginian creeper as it loves to climb and scramble to great heights. My favourite has to be the grape vine Brant mainly grown for autumn colour, but also provides us with an ample supply of small black sweet and juicy bunches of grapes that never fail to ripen up on my south wall.

                                             

Wee jobs to do this week

Bring wooden patio tables indoors for winter protection as they are most unlikely to be used for the next five months. Once they are totally dry they can be repainted with an outdoor varnish to last for another couple of years.

Once all the old tomato plants have been removed, the grapes harvested from vines and the leaves have all fallen off the inside of the greenhouse can be washed down to clean it up for the winter. If you get a good sunny day take the chance and wash the outside of the greenhouse, which can be very important for those who have applied some glass shading for the summer. I stopped that practise years ago as the sun in Scotland is just not strong enough to cause any problems unless you grow orchids.

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SUNNY AUTUMN DAYS

SUNNY AUTUMN DAYS

Late October was always tattie picking time, and memories are still very strong of cold mornings but it always seemed to be dry and sunny. We no longer pick spuds in the field, just on our allotment plot, but sunny days are still with us. The garden flowers and fruit are taking advantage of the mild spell, and like us probably hope it lasts long enough.

Outdoor fuchsias are still a mass of flowers, and I struggle to replace my begonias with the spring bedding plants as they won’t stop flowering. Several plants are totally confused not knowing what season they are in. Ceanothus and philadelphus have started to flower. Wallflower is a spring bedding plant, but mine are all in flower now. On the vegetable patch my spring cabbage is hearting up now, ahead of my winter cabbage.

Climbing roses are now in their second flush, but greenfly are a proper nuisance, and blackspot is never far away. Bush roses continue to flower and I expect them to keep going into winter unless we get an early cold snap. The jet stream seems to be behaving itself for now, giving us a fair bit of decent weather, but reports of potential problems with the path of El Nino could tip us back into a severe winter. Gardeners always keep an eye on the weather as it affects all our plans.

Dahlias are showing a wee bit of distress following a few cold nights, so they will soon get lifted and dried out for storing in a frost free place.

Autumn raspberries are now just about finished, and perpetual strawberry Flamenco still produces very large attractive fruit, but they are not soft or sweet without warmth from the sun.

I keep thinking I have picked my last fig, but then we get a couple of sunny days and a few more figs ripen up. My small bush five feet tall on my allotment plot has been unbelievable this year. I had hoped for a good year of about 100 figs since I got 80 last year. However the summer was so cool that I lost faith in this exotic plant that really

needs a sunny hot summer. My first figs were not ready till the very end of August. Then the jet stream changed direction, the sun returned and my figs jumped for joy. I have now picked over 160 figs, and as they ripen over a long period it is easy to use them all. It is hard to beat a fresh picked ripe fig for flavour.

Autumn salad leaves love the mild, moist autumn and provide a wealth of fresh leaves including mizuna, rocket, mustard, lettuce, spring onions and radish. Many of these can keep us in fresh salad greens well into winter provided it is not too severe. To be on the safe side some can be transplanted into the greenhouse after the old tomato plants have been removed from growbags or borders.

Pumpkins have been quite poor this year due to lack of sun and warmth. Only got three pumpkins from three plants and they were not all that big, though a bad infection of mildew did not help.

It has been a funny year for root crops. Carrots and summer turnips seem to be having a good year and parsnips a fantastic year with huge thick roots more than two feet long, but beetroot is taking a rest. Size is poor and they all seem to have rust infected leaves.

Apples and pears have never been better, but sweetness and flavour is lacking compared to other years. They have all given record yields, and Anna has taken on the task of finding out how to utilise this crop. The juicer has been working overtime, and compote, stews, pies and crumbles are all appearing. Many of these dishes can be frozen for future use, and there will still be plenty left over for my wine brewing.

Grapes, however are having a terrible year. Outdoors the early varieties Rondo was ready at the end of August and Regent in mid September, but as these are all new vines it is really too early to judge. Phoenix is well established outdoors and produced a lot of bunches, but most failed to ripen up.

In the greenhouse muscat flavoured Siegerrebe was ready in September, but Black Hamburg suffered from shanking where more than half the grapes failed to ripen and just shrivelled up.

Wee jobs to do this week

Assess potatoes in store and on the plate to decide what to grow in 2016. Blight has again been bad on most varieties other than Sarpo Mira, but my best spud for flavour is Lady Christl.

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HARVEST THE APPLES

HARVEST THE APPLES

October is usually the busy month for apple harvesting, though this year the cool summer has delayed ripening by a few weeks. My first Oslins, the Arbroath Pippin, were picked at the end of August, but were not truly ripe till early September. Although this apple has a distinct flavour it is very prone to brown rot and in this cool year with a wet August losses have been very high.

Apples like all other fruit need warm sunny days to increase sweetness so it is understandable that apples, pears and most other fruits have lacked the sweetness of previous years.

Catherine picking her step over apples

My main early apple Discovery was picked in mid October, a good month later than previous years. The crop yield with this and all other apples has been very high, but I fear at the expense of flavour. Apples came into flower quite late so there were plenty of bees around for pollination, then good weather for fertilisation. The spring and summer season gave us cool but moist weather so growth was slow, but apples and pears all swelled up larger than normal. A week of brilliant summer weather at the end of September certainly helped to ripen up the fruit, but then it was very short lived as we returned to a cold and wet October. This mixture of warm dry weather followed by cold and wet affected the Discovery apples by causing the skin to split on a few before I got them harvested. As yet my Fiesta, Red Falstaff and Red Devil are still on the tree, but will be picked before the end of this month.

Apple Red Devil

This years heavy crop came in for some thinning in July, both naturally then by hand where ever I thought the crop was too heavy. However as the fruit swelled the trees have continued to drop apples all October but before they were fully ripe. This harvest was not lost as Anna has got herself a juicer and now everything she can get her hands on gets juiced. Apples, pears, carrots, beetroot, Lettuce, chard, kale and tomatoes have all gone through the juicer. Never thought I would be drinking my lettuce and kale, and it tastes just fine. It can be stored fresh in the fridge for a couple of days, but all surplus gets frozen for future use.

We lead a very healthy life!!!

Apple Discovery

Bramley apples can hang a long time on the tree so it is usually early November before I pick my cookers. Again the crop is very heavy so there is plenty to store into next spring. I pack all fruit in boxes placed in my cold garage, but keep a check for any rots, or shrivelling or mice.

Once all my apples are picked, cleaned and sorted I can see just how much surplus I have so I can allocate a fair bit for brewing into my Sauternes style dessert apple wine. I will need 30 pounds of apples for three demijohns of wine, which will be ready in a couple of year’s time.

Starlight apple Firedance

Plant an apple tree now

We get so much value from our apple trees that I feel everyone with a wee garden or plot should plant at least one apple tree. Now is the time to plan which variety you wish to grow and garden space will determine what size of tree to purchase. There is a size and shape to suit all situations, from standards, bush, fan trained, cordons, espaliers and now for those with very limited space we have the step over tree growing only a few feet tall but kept small with summer pruning. Another development has been the introduction of the single stemmed Starline apple trees coming in five different varieties. These dwarf trees are kept narrow and columnar by summer pruning all side shoots to a couple of buds. They are ideal for those with very limited space but wish to grow a few varieties, which also helps with cross pollination. I like the bright red Starline variety Firedance.

Wee jobs to do this week

Now that the tomato crops are just about finished, it is better to remove all ripe and unripe fruits which can be ripened in a warm place indoors. Remove the old plants and chop up for the compost heap. Growbags or border soil can still be used for an early winter salad crop of salad leaves, mizuna, cress, rocket, mustard and radish.

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END OF SEASON CARE

END OF SEASON CARE

As the growing season comes to an end it is time to harvest some crops that need winter protection, and find winter quarters for those tender summer flowers that will continue for many years as long as you look after them during the critical winter months. Some vegetable crops such as leeks, Swedes, winter cabbage, Brussels sprouts, Swiss Chard and parsnips are quite happy to be left alone as they are perfectly hardy and exposure to frosts help to sweeten them up.

Beetroot and carrots can be lifted and stored in dry soil or sand in a frost free shed, although with milder winters becoming normal, I have tended to just earth up my beetroot and leave them where they are. So far this strategy has been fine, but a severe winter like in 2010 could test this method.

Onions and potatoes are best drying off before storing them in hessian sacks, onion nets or for small quantities of potatoes I use large cardboard boxes in my frost proof garage. Onions need plenty of ventilation to keep them sound, and potatoes need darkness as exposure to light will turn them green and be inedible. However if you have a good variety and you wish to keep some smaller spuds for growing the next year, then exposure to light is good for them.

Pumpkins are usually left till the end of this month to let them ripen up and turn orange before taking them home and storing them in a cool room. They should store quite well up to March.

Geraniums and impatiens can be kept from one year to another by taking cuttings and growing them on a windowsill over winter. I take geranium cuttings by snapping the top of a strong shoot off at a leaf joint with just one leaf. I do not use a knife. These cuttings go into shallow pots with a sandy compost mixture. Impatiens cuttings are taken about three to four inches long and after removing all the lower leaves they are placed in a jar filled with water with only the leafy tops showing. Keep them on a light windowsill that is not in the sun. They will root in a month and can then be potted up into compost to grow on and flower in late autumn to mid winter, on a sunny windowsill.

Fuchsias grown in pots or baskets are best dried off and kept in a cool frost free place over winter, but check they don’t completely dry out. However keep young fuchsias grown from cuttings taken in summer growing for as long as possible to establish a strong plant before they go dormant and need drying off slightly.

Begonias are lifted in October when flowering finishes and the cold weather causes the leaves to fall off. I dry my tubers out in the sun for about a week, provided there is no risk of frost. Then remove all the soil before packing them in polystyrene boxes for storing in my garage. I use the dry old soil to cover over the tops for added protection and make sure they don’t completely dry out.

Gladioli are lifted in mid October and the old stems cut off just above ground level. The corms are dried out under cover, then cleaned up removing the old spent corm and all small cormlets. The biggest of these can be retained for growing on, and will flower after one or two years. Store in a frost free garage or shed in boxes and keep them dry.

Chrysanthemum stools are lifted after flowering, cut back to about six inches and boxed up in compost. Make sure all stools are labelled. Over winter in a cold greenhouse or frame, and keep them moist as they will continue to grow, though ever so slowly till spring.

Wee jobs to do this week

Although our autumns seem to go on longer and winter slow to appear, deciduous trees and shrubs will start to lose their leaves from now till winter. Rake these up regularly and add them to the compost heap. Once mixed with old grass cuttings, annual weeds and vegetable debris they will soon rot down and provide an excellence source of compost to enrich the soil.

Summer bedding plants that are finished can also be added to the compost heap plus any old soil from tubs and hanging baskets that needs replacing. If the compost heap has been gathering material since late winter, give it a turn over with a fork to mix old rotted compost with fresh new material as this will help to rot it down.

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