Through the garden gate--October

 

October is a lovely month in the garden with so many autumn colours around. The leaves are falling onto the paths and need sweeping up regularly. That will keep us busy for a few weeks yet. There is a Rhus shrub just outside our front window which turns the most beautiful orange/yellow colour in the autumn before it's leaves finally fall.

 

The hostas also turn a lovely yellow colour before they die back. The cotoneaster horizontalis growing against the house wall in the back garden is full of berries now and the birds are loving them.

 I don't do much clearing up in autumn, I have found that leaving the interesting seed heads from plants which have finished flowering and any foliage with good colour gives the  garden a lot of colour and interest for a while.

I have been making up some autumn containers with cyclamen and evergreens for outside the front and back doors. They are looking very good and will keep well through the winter. The pinks and purples go so well with heucheras and many of the small evergreen shrubs which are sold at this time of year in garden centres especially for autumn pots.

October is one of my favourite months, not just because of the lovely colours but also because my birthday is near the end of the month. My potting bench outside the shed which Richard had made  years ago from an old kitchen table was rotting and in need of replacing. I decided I would like a new one for my birthday and after looking at several online, Richard decided he could do better and would make me another one, this time from new wood. I am very pleased with the finished result. I don't think I could have found a better one anywhere else and my potting area is looking much better now. It's all ready for me to work at, but I feel it's too nice to mess up with compost!

 

 Today I am linking with Sarah at Down by the Sea for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post.

Planting tulips

If the rain ever stops I might get some work done in the garden and at the allotment. I keep sneaking out when there is a brief dry spell to do a few jobs. Last week I managed to plant some tulip bulbs in pots. I've never grown tulips before, but I've been admiring the Sarah Raven Tulip collections and for my birthday this year my daughters bought me some. They came in two lovely hessian sacks--very useful.

I planted one lot at the allotment in a big deep plastic tub which I grew carrots in this year. The tulips  should brighten up the allotment next year.

 

The rest I wanted to plant at home in big pots. I used an old enamel bread bin for one planter and a deep pot for the other.  I planted them in layers. The first layer, near the bottom of the pot but with a two inch depth of compost below them.  Then I added more compost and placed another layer of bulbs on this. I topped with a final layer of compost, making sure that the bulbs were at least eight inches deep.

There are still plenty of bulbs left and I was running out of good sized pots, but on a recent visit to the RHS garden at Harlow Carr we spotted a 'buy one get one free' on some lovely pots which will look great planted up with tulips. The only problem was that they had 'Yorkshire pots' engraved on the side of them and we live in Lancashire! Well I'm sure the engraving will soon be covered in moss and no-one will know. So I'm now waiting for another quick dry spell when I can dash outside and get the rest of my tulips planted up.