Garden Centre

Saturday, October 20, 2007

The garden slows down, but the chores don't

As leaves fall from the trees, collect them and put them in a wire basket so that they can rot down and become leaf mould – I’ve seen it said that you can do this by putting them in a black bin liner and knotting the top – maybe so, but all I’ve achieved by that method is a bag of disgusting smelling slime. Don’t put them in the compost as they will retard compost development which will slow down massively over the winter anyway. In particular you need to remove fallen leaves from the lawn because a layer of leaves will prevent oxygen getting to the grass which then becomes yellow and deteriorates rapidly.

While you’re on the lawn, and if you can find a dry day, brush off worm casts with a stiff broom before mowing or else the lawn will smear with mud when you cut it. It’s claimed that you can lay a sheet of black polythene over leatherjacket prone areas of your lawn overnight. In the morning the little pests will all have come to the surface and can be swept up. Again, this may be true, but whenever I’ve tried to do this, it’s rained and all I’ve ended up with is a sheet of polythene with a nice slick of water on top and no evidence of leatherjackets. Were I to find the monsters, I would certainly sweep them up and incinerate them in my chiminea, they are my pet hate!

I’m planning and planting my spring-flowering bulbs, dipping them in paraffin to try and deter squirrels (faint hope) and putting a half-handful of sand in the bottom of the planting hole to give the roots something more draining that my horrible clay/chalk mixture to sit in. Bulbs that don’t get pinched by the squirrels only tend to last a couple of seasons in some parts of the garden and I’m sure it’s because the roots rot.

Labels: autumn colour, autumn tasks, lawn care, leaf mould, leatherjackets

The All Seasons Gardener at 4:51 AM

---