Don’t leave it until the ground’s too hard to work, your edibles are impossible to lift out of the soil, and the roots of your taller plants have succumbed to wind rock because you didn’t cut them back.
As colder weather beckons, now is the time to save your plants, tackle your soil, harvest the last of your summer veg and protect crops during winter.
Home-made compost is best for mulching, O’Neill advises, although you can also obtain green waste from your local council. Mulching will not only protect the roots of your plants from freezing but it will also add structure to the soil.Give your roses a trim to reduce the risk of wind rock, which causes their roots to lift and allows frost to damage them. “Take them down roughly by a third or a half, depending on how large the rose bushes are,” says O’Neill.
“You will need to cover some plants with horticultural fleece if you don’t want to lift them,” O’Neill adds, mentioning dahlias and cannas, which should be left until the first frosts, when the foliage has gone black, before cutting the top growth off and then protecting them with fleece. Move tender plants in pots into a frost-free area – it could be a garage or a shed – or wrap the plant and the pot in horticultural fleece, so the compost in the pot doesn’t freeze, she adds. If you have potted pelargoniums or other specimens which are treated more like bedding plants, move them undercover, in a greenhouse or conservatory.“You should still be planting out your autumn garlic and onion sets now.
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