Gardening / Cuttings: Weekend work
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Your support makes all the difference.VEGETABLE gardens are in need of a good clean-out at this time of the year, removing runner beans (and shelling any dried-off pods for seed), and clearing out French beans (shelling any overgrown pods for haricots). Overblown lettuces should also go on the compost heap, together with the rotting leaves that tend to lie round parsnips and celeriac. Celeriac roots hump out of the ground as they grow and you need to clean off old leaves regularly, leaving only the ones that are growing upright.
Start to spread muck over cleared ground in the vegetable garden. This prevents annual weeds from germinating and protects the soil from rain splash. Digging it in is a job that you can spread out over the rest of the winter.
Transplant self-seeded biennials and perennials that have put themselves in the wrong places. Seedlings of aquilegia, verbascum and foxgloves can all be shifted now. Fill in the spaces between with masses of bulbs. A trowel is a better planting tool for bulbs than a dibber, which has too pointed an end: there is a danger that your bulb will be left hanging in space underground, with nothing to get its roots into.
Insulate greenhouses with bubble polythene to cut down on heating costs. Constructing a double-insulated corner inside the greenhouse saves even more: you can then heat just this space and leave the rest. Bring in succulents that have been spending the summer outside. If the compost is wringing wet, repot them in fresh compost, and be sure to use plenty of grit for extra drainage.
Check growths of all climbers and wall shrubs, tying in whippy growths where necessary to prevent them from lashing about. This applies particularly to ceanothus, which grows very fast, and to the pale-flowered Solanum jasminoides, which continues to grow and flower until the first frosts.
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