Innholdsfortegnelse for 11 October 2025 i Garden News

Right now in the garden it feels a little like watching the tide turn – one season is firmly here, another has just about left us but still they butt up against each other. This year feels even more like that than usual with lovely autumnal sunshine, along with rain, giving us some of the best conditions of the whole year. One rose bush in my garden, which stopped flowering in July because of the incessant heat, is now back in full bloom again. It all feels very odd! And in this issue we’re taking a close look at the flowers we can rely on at this time of year (and with growing conditions as they are right now they should put on an extra special show). Starting on page…

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The hot summer of 2025 took its toll on many gardens, and by mid-August a lot of the colour had started to fizzle out. But here’s the good news: you can still get stuck in and refresh your garden. With a bit of planning, the right plants, and a touch of TLC, you can enjoy colour, fragrance and texture well into the depths of winter – and lay the groundwork for a spectacular spring. I’ve been growing and trialling plants professionally and in my own garden for more than 40 years, and I can tell you from experience that the late-season garden can be just as rewarding (and far less stressful!) than the height of summer. So grab a cuppa – or a trowel – and let’s dive in. Autumn…

SPONSORED BY The online specialist gardening retailer, run by gardeners for gardeners Summer was sense-sational! Iona Chisholm A developing family garden and allotment in Staffordshire, with year-round interest. It’s been a feast for the senses this summer, with colour from bedding plants and foliage, scents from flowers such as peonies, sweet peas and currently the oleaster, and tasty produce. You just can’t beat the flavour and the love of homegrown food. After I moved my ‘Marketmore 76’ cucumbers outside for pollination, one cucumber went from the size of my little finger to harvest-ready in a week. ‘Elsanta’ strawberries have a wonderful aroma and flavour and potatoes are fab. The sweet and crunchy ‘Oregon Sugar Pod’ mangetout have finished now, but we’re still picking round courgettes ‘Tondo do Nizza’. There’s some…

Award-winning designer, TV broadcaster and best-selling author who makes the ordinary extraordinary Slot in silver One of the more surprising colours to enhance flame-based autumn foliage is silver, especially with reds and oranges. Try adding silver to your beds and borders in the form of evergreens (or ‘ever-silvers’) such as artemisia ‘Powis Castle’, brachyglottis ‘Sunshine’ or even a lavender. Pick plants with lasting colour Lots of plants with good autumn colour are sadly fleeting, like Euonymus alatus, which burns in brilliant red, but rarely for more than 10 days. However, a few autumn stars hold their colour for weeks and months! Cryptomeria japonica conifers take on burnished tones in mid-autumn, which last till spring. Cotoneaster ‘Cornubia’ flushes with red and orange among its evergreen leaves throughout autumn and so does…

Melons need a long, hot summer to ripen. I think we can say they’ve had perfect conditions for growing this year! While the fruits are rather small, they’re super sweet and juicy. At Fothergill’s seed trials ground in Suffolk this summer, we spotted the new ‘Honey Drops F1’ variety growing in the polytunnel and in hanging baskets. These produce mini melons, 10cm in diameter, with thin skins and a sweet taste. I’ll certainly be growing this variety next year for my delicious melon and ginger ice cream recipe. And look out for my ginger biscuit recipe in next week’s GN, which you can use crushed as a topping. Ingredients Serves 6 1 large Ogentype melon, or equivalent in mini melons 100g caster sugar 4 egg yolks 2 tbsp lemon juice…

As our gardens slowly fade into a sepia palette of decay, we can see their structure and ‘bones’. It’s a wonderful opportunity to make plans. Grab a pad and draw a sketch of your garden layout. Autumn and winter give us time to think about new projects and plants; what grew well this year and even more importantly, which plants did poorly, as this should be a strong factor in any future plant purchases. Note where herbaceous perennials and summer bulbs grew as it’s difficult to remember positions in a border once everything’s died down. If you took photos, refer back to them; they’re a handy prompt to remember colour schemes. It’s also time to browse seed catalogues. It’s always nice to grow something different, so check out this season’s…

It’s been a great year for apples in most of the country. Spring was fairly kind and although the dry summer has meant some apples are smaller than average, there’s a bumper crop. The biggest and best can be carefully stored in the crisper drawer of the fridge or in a shed, and damaged ones given to blackbirds – but what about all the others? You can juice the apples and freeze it in small plastic bottles, or stew them to freeze in plastic boxes and bags, adding blackberries or sultanas and cinnamon, for quick pies and crumbles. You can also make apple butter. Roughly chop apples (skin on) and add to a slow cooker with sugar, cinnamon or other spices. Cook for 8-10 hours and puree with a stick…

The latest from Carol's beautiful cottage garden... plus her diary for the week! Grasses dominate our brick garden at this time of year. They grow there from spring through summer, but it’s not until autumn takes over that they hold sway. Many belong to the molinia family, Molinia caerulea being one of our native grasses – blue (or purple) moor grass. Though many of the named hybrids of M. caerulea arundinacea inherit dark inflorescences, as autumn approaches both the tuft of basal leaves and flowering stems become golden. They are beautiful grasses, often tall and willowy, moving balletically in the breeze. They’re animated, their whirling stems energise the garden and when they waft, they swish and sing a musical accompaniment to the golden glow they give the garden. Stipa calamagrostis…

Summer baskets now need to be replaced with foliage and flowers for autumn and winter. There’s a huge range of plants in garden centres including colourful flowers and evergreen foliage, and you can add some dwarf, spring-flowering bulbs too. Replace compost; it’ll be full of roots. Put the old plants in the compost heap, break up the compost and add to borders. Use fresh, multi-purpose compost to refill the basket. Adding controlled-release fertiliser will keep your plants fed until spring. You don’t usually need to add water-retaining gel to winter baskets, but keep the compost moist with regular watering. The best trailing plants for winter baskets are ivy and vinca, because they’re evergreen, and both are available with variegated leaves. The central plant can be a dwarf conifer, a skimmia…

Helping you get your best-ever fruit and veg This season has been a particularly good one for squash and pumpkins here in Yorkshire. Despite the dry weather, a little careful watering at the base of the plants has made all the difference. It’s encouraged strong growth and ensured the plants have produced a generous number of fruits. Many of these have ripened earlier than in previous years, which is always a welcome sight as the nights begin to draw in. With autumn well upon us, it now becomes a race against the first frosts. Squash and pumpkins need to be harvested and stored before the cold catches them, as frost damage will shorten their storage life dramatically. When it comes to harvesting, I always make a point of cutting a…

Professor Buczacki is a horticultural expert, writer and former chair of Gardeners’ Question Time Got a problem? Our Problem Solver can help! See our contact details on page 3 #GNASKTHEEXPERTS What has happened to my cucumbers? Max Rathmell, West Yorkshire Stefan says: You grow cucumbers in a small polytunnel and have done for many years, but events this summer mean you’re considering giving up. They seemed to do well initially, but by August the leaves started to turn patchy yellow/brown and dry out from the bottom. Within two weeks the yellow had progressed to the top, the leaves had gone crunchy and growth ceased. The plants are grown in the ground in the polytunnel border either side of a path. Each year you change the soil on one side with…

Grounds to celebrate Our garden transformation is finally finished and now we can enjoy it. My partner designed and did the building work and I landscaped and planted the garden. Mandy Boon, Nuneaton, Warwickshire A buzz of bloomers The best plant in the garden this year for bees has been persicaria. Not only does it attract a multitude of them as well as other flying insects too, but it also flowers for weeks without flagging. I would recommend these plants to any bee lover. Sally Wilton, Bournemouth Budding brilliance I recently joined the Addingham Allotment Association and entered a novice exhibit in the flower show for a display in an unusual container. I was proud to receive a highly commended award. Mark Nuttall, by email It’s a miracle! I rescued…