I have been holding off writing this seasonal blog because I’m just not yet ready to embrace autumn yet. Summer started so late this year and was so dreary; that now it’s here I want to hold onto the sunshine and warmth for as long as possible. But how can we extend our summer gardens into September and beyond, as the kids go back to school and the evening light slips away a little every day?
Beds and Borders
Choosing late flowering perennials is a great way to keep your garden looking vibrant. Many plants are still providing colour and brightness, and they will continue for weeks. Look out for fuchsias, salvias, and dahlias. You can also find echinacea, perovskia, and kniphofia (red hot pokers). Don’t forget symphyotrichum (asters) and Japanese anemones. One of my favourite ground cover plants is Ceratostigma plumbaginoides. This is covered in bright blue flowers into autumn before its foliage turns all shades of red and purples. Combine these hardy perennials that return every year with tender perennials or bedding like chrysanthemums, violas and pansies and you can have a kaleidoscope of colour all the way to the frosts.
Ornamental grasses also come into their own in September with all their beautiful panicles – feathery miscanthus, airy panicum, fluffy pennisetum that look like squirrel tails, and the soft feather duster plumes of cortaderia (pampas) grasses). They add wonderful texture and movement to gardens and borders, and fade elegantly to buff tones that complement the warm rusty colours of autumn.
Planted Containers
While it’s easy to keep beds and borders looking great into autumn, summer bedding displays in pots and hanging baskets are becoming exhausted. September is a great time to clear them off to the compost bin and plant up a new one to last through to spring. Bulb lasagnas, topped not with cheese sauce, but fresh brightly coloured pansies and violas, cyclamen or bellis and with a strand of trailing ivy to soften the edge will see you through the next six months or more.
Start with fresh multi-purpose compost or bulb fibre and after covering the drainage hole in the pot with a crock, add compost to almost half way. Position some tulip bulbs (not touching) and add more compost to just cover the tips of the bulbs. The add a layer of daffodils or hyacinths (again not touching) and cover those bulbs with compost. Leave just enough room to top the pot with some colourful bedding, water in and place somewhere you will see it every day.
If squirrels are a problem, consider covering the pot with wire mesh for a few weeks to prevent them from digging up your bulbs. Once the bedding has rooted disturbance by squirrels is less likely.
Beds and Borders
Another way to bring colour to your garden in autumn is through fruits and berries. The lilac-purple berries of callicarpa make a statement, but I prefer a blast of red or orange. Pyracantha will be smothered in red, orange or yellow berries from October, creating a feast for our eyes and a banquet for the birds. Viburnum ‘Kilimanjaro Sunrise’ is already, as I write this, covered in bright red berries and it is swiftly being joined by those of cotoneasters, crataegus (hawthorn), rose hips and sorbus (rowans). Let’s not forget the fruits of crab apples which range from yellow to deep red in colour and can hold onto trees well into winter. They give us gorgeous blossom in spring, shade in summer and an abundance of fruits in autumn. I like to tuck a few sprays of crab apples into my Christmas wreath and leave the rest for the birds, although last year, I have a sneaking suspicion that the cheeky squirrel scoffed the lot from my tree!
Wild Birds
All these beautiful berries help our feathered friends by providing food, but other nutritious food becomes harder for them to find as insects and larvae become scarce. If you want to help by feeding birds, avoid bread or anything that swells when it is wet, as it can block their stomachs. Used cooking used fats and anything salty are also harmful and mouldy food is as bad for birds as it is for humans.
So what nutritious foods can we give birds in the colder months? Aim to provide high energy foods like sunflower seeds, suet pellets, fat balls and peanuts (ones that are marketed for birds). Keep your feeders topped up little and often or put food out at the same time every day. Birds will get used to the routine and it is not good for them to expend their energy by flying to feeders to find nothing there to eat. Remove fat balls from plastic nets as birds can get tangled in them.
I like to use a squirrel-proof feeder for seeds and nuts and a fat ball feeder. My resident sparrows love these and are sometimes joined by blue tits or wrens. Robins and blackbirds don’t tend to visit the feeders themselves, but enjoy hopping around at ground level under the bushes and feeders, picking up bits that have dropped down.
A squirrel baffle like the one pictured is a simple piece of kit designed to deter squirrels from reaching your bird feeders. They can rip apart plastic and mesh feeders to get to their favourite peanuts.
Practice good hygiene by using several feeding stations in different places, to prevent birds congregating in one place. Clean feeders and bird tables weekly with a suitable disinfectant, then rinse and allow them to air dry before refilling. Wash equipment outside with brushes and bucket that are not used for other purposes, as some diseases can also affect humans or pets. Provide fresh clean water in bird baths every day.
As we move from summer to what we hope will be an Indian Summer, these simple changes can keep our gardens vibrant. By selecting the right plants and planting up new pots or containers, we can enjoy the beauty of the season for longer. So, take some time to refresh your garden, fill your containers and bird feeders and hold onto summer for as long as you can.
By our resident horticultural expert
