Tom Sharples

It’s hard to believe that November and the subsequent winter is galloping up on us! But it’s not time yet for those fireside slippers! Although October was busy, there is still plenty to do - unless you have already stored all the remaining fruit and vegetables and prepared your garden for those winter months.

Brown patches on your lawn after the winter weather? Now’s the time to treat them!

Rake out dead grass with a spring tine type rake and roughen the resulting soil surface. Using a gardening sieve, apply some ‘weed-free’ garden compost to the patch, rake again and then apply some fresh lawn seed. Rake in gently and ensure the seed is kept moist. Germination should take 1-2 weeks.

Hot weather will result in evaporation from garden ponds, so remember to ‘top up’ water levels. Remember too, to put out bird baths and a dish of water for hedgehogs.

Wash down and clean inside and outside of greenhouses to improve light transmission and dispose of pests & diseases. Wash and clean all your seed trays and pots too.

November is a busy month in the garden, gathering in the last of the fruit and vegetables and preparing them for storage, be it freezing, bottling, making jam or just dry storing in the garage! 

There is still time to get rid of moss patches in the lawn, using moss-killer or by raking. Don’t forget you can improve ‘thinning’ areas by ‘over-sowing’ with a quality lawn seed mixture and raking in where possible. Remember though that you need to keep the surface moist until the new grass becomes established.

Wash down and clean inside and outside of greenhouses to improve light transmission and dispose of pests & diseases. Wash and clean all your seed trays and pots too. Clear all weeds from the garden – a clean start will pay dividends!

July already! It’s amazing how the time passes and yet we still search for some normality in life. Gardeners though are great optimists, they have to be, dealing with the vagaries of the weather and an array of pests and diseases! Let’s have a look at our gardening tasks for July: