This week we will be taking delivery of autumn onion setts and garlic. An advantage of planting these now is that it gives them a longer time to grow and they are ready to crop earlier than spring planted setts. This will give you more room earlier next summer to plant other types of vegetables. Especially useful if like me, your space is limited. Just ensure that the soil that you plant them is well drained and in an open airy place so those wet winter days don’t rot the setts in the ground. Interestingly varieties that do well when planted in autumn are less likely to bolt (when the plant produces a flower instead of an edible bulb) as they are more tolerant of the cold that can cause bolting.

Well it’s certainly starting to feel chillier of an evening now. I have to confess to liking the autumn almost as much as I like the spring. I love the beautiful colours that many deciduous plants turn over the next month or so before they drop their leaves. I’m lucky enough to live near the New forest which means I can enjoy the trees changing hue on nice long walks which inspires me in making plant choices for the centres and my own garden.

We’re starting to see some Autumn vegetables come in. Like bedding plants, the longer you give them to grow before the colder months start the better they seem to cope and I have a few gaps appearing where lettuce and spinach have got past it now and my carrots are about ready to start to pick. I was pleased with my leeks last year so I’ll try those again in the little ready-started seedling packs. Chard and hardier varieties of lettuce are always good doers and I’m going to leave some space to choose something on impulse when I pop into one of the centres to buy the other plants.

My sweet peas have got mildew and are really past their best so I now have a big hole to fill with something to flower through the winter. Luckily we have just started to get our homegrown Autumn bedding in, Pansies, violas and cyclamen - all perfect for filling gaps. I’ve found that if you get Autumn bedding started off early enough it has chance to grow that bit bigger before it gets too cold meaning it will have plenty of strength to flower well throughout the Autumn and Winter months. I also feed it with tomato food to encourage flower and it also keeps the growth ‘hard’ which helps them toughen up for the winter months.

I’m starting to turn my thoughts to the end of the summer and Autumn now, some of my summer plants are looking tired so its time to roll up my sleeves and spend a week-end clearing and replacing anything that’s looking a bit shabby. We’re just starting to get some Autumn stock in to the Garden centres now so there’s plenty of yummy new plants to choose from to get the gaps filled.

My Lavender and Santonlina border has looked fantastic for a couple of months now but the flowers are just going over and they are looking a bit straggly. They’re in for a good hard chop but only as far as the start of this current years growth to encourage them to thicken up without going all leggy. The aromatic foliage has definitely discouraged the local cats from using that border as a litter box which was becoming a problem. A great success all in all!

Last week Landford Garden Centre played host to the Morgan’s Vale and Woodfalls CE VA Primary School and David, Landfords Manager and I gave them a guided tour. The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves and we were inundated with thank-you letters! When they returned to School they had a project to design a poster for us and this is our favorite. We love it!!

Well its full steam ahead in the veggie garden, I’m still giving away strawberries and salad leaves and I’ve found some delicious new salad recipes to try – green salad can get a bit boring. I’ve tried adding a sprinkle of freshly chopped oregano to mixed salad leaves which really pepped them up and for some colour I’m enjoying the petals from the flowers of my nasturtiums which I planted to attract aphids away from the main veg beds. Many garden flower petals are edible and really make a salad look pretty. I like Nasturtiums,

violas (in moderation, they can cause a tummy upset in large quantities) marigolds and calendula and borage flowers. These also look really pretty frozen in your ice cubes, easy to do and very effective when entertaining. Just be sure to check that the flowers you use are safe to eat before you go ahead!

At this time of year it’s easy to assume that our feathered friends have plenty of food about so many people stop feeding them. However with babies about and this year’s insect shortage caused by the long cold winter all is not as good for them as it may seem. In towns birds often get quite dependent on the food that we leave for them too so don’t forget to give them a helping hand and keep feeding them.

Our boys from Badger completed their cycle ride from the centre in Mappleborough Green (Warwickshire) to our West Parley centre in Ferndown (Dorset) over two days this week-end. Powering through in temperatures exceeding thirty degrees they have raised over £1600 for Acorns Children’s Hospice and are already talking about doing it again next year! We would like to thank all the support they were given by staff, suppliers and the very kind Cholderton youth hostel near Stonehenge who were kind enough to give them dinner on Saturday evening and a huge cooked breakfast to set them off again on Sunday morning.

The garden is doing really well at the moment – My strawberries are delicious and I have so many salad leaves I’m giving them away to anyone that will have them!

The sweet peas I bought from our nursery are flowering away now too – I bought a pot of a mix called ‘The Blues’ and they are beautiful. The way to keep them going is to keep them well fed and to keep picking them – Once they are allowed to set seed they’ll stop. Our flat smells wonderful with vases of them around.

I’m very pleased to be cropping a decent amount of vegetables from the garden at last. My spinach and cut and come again salad leaves have gone beserk so I shouldn’t need to buy any for quite some time now.

My beans are showing real promise, tying in the new growth to the supports has become an almost daily job now and they are quite the envy of my Dad whose beans are struggling this year. His aren’t ideally placed to make the most of the sun all day and he didn’t put as much time into preparing the soil as I did which goes to show it’s worth the effort.

I’m also reaping the rewards of putting in the same effort with preparation for my strawberries. Last year, in their first year, I removed any flowers to stop them producing fruit so they could put their energy into growing into strong healthy plants – This year they are laden with fruit which I can’t wait try!