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Thompson & Morgan: Andrew Tokely's Weekly Gardening Blog

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Last weekend was good for pottering around in the garden, and after some heavy showers during the week the soil has certainly become more workable, but has also spoilt many of the last summer blooms that now require some attention.

From now until mid November is the ideal time to plant Garlic cloves. These should be planted in a well-cultivated part of the vegetable plot in a sunny position. Plant as individual cloves rather than the whole bulb. The advantage of planting now before we the weather gets too cold is that the cloves will produce a good root system and some early cloves to harvest next June.

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Hosta Ready for Cutting Back

The Hostas in my garden have been excellent this year but are now looking a little tatty. Their attractive foliage has now turned brown and this is best cut down for the winter months. Once cut down, I will add a few slug pellets to the tops of my containers or around the base of the plants so that any of these little pests that may have been hiding will quickly be dealt with and not cause me a problem in the future.

Now that the tomatoes have been removed from the greenhouse, the glass needs cleaning inside and out before the benches are put back. Clean glass will allow more light into the structure during the darker days of winter, helping your plants to grow.

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Geranium Cuttings Rooting Well

In August and September I took my first batch of Geranium cuttings, which are now all nicely rooted. My trailing Geranium baskets don’t look great now, so last weekend I took them down and took my last batch of cuttings. Cuttings that are taken at this time of year should be inserted into a mix of multipurpose compost and Perlite. On top of the moist trays I always also put a thin layer of Perlite, as this will reflect light back onto the cuttings during the duller days of winter helping them to root more quickly. As cuttings taken now require a little extra warmth to encourage them to root, the trays should be placed into a propagator with the bottom heat set at about 21C (70F).

Last weekend I was busy pruning my shrubs as I found many of the tall shrubs like Lavetera and Buddleia have become quite tall and whippy despite the dry weather this year. These are normally pruned in the Spring but if left until then they will look untidy and are often damaged by the strong winter winds. What I prefer to do with these taller shrubs is cut them back by about half now to reduce the risk of wind rock or damage to the large branches. Then I will cut them back hard again in the Spring.

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Winter Flowering Pansies Planted Out

The winter flowering pansies I grew earlier in the year were large enough for planting out last weekend. I planted these in my borders and in a few containers, and after the showers of rain this week they have really settled in. Planting now will help them to get established whilst the soil is still warm, and whilst the weather conditions are still favourable.

If you have grown some good early flowering Chrysanthemums this year and you want to keep them for another year, now is the time to lift the stools (old plants). Once lifted, trim the stem down to about 15cm (6in), then clean away all the old leaves and trim back any basal shoots. Then wash the roots removing as much of the old garden soil as possible. These stools are now ready to be boxed or potted up. I like to put my Chrysanthemum stools into a shallow box filled with John Innes No 2 compost. Once boxed, keep the compost dry and place into a coldframe or cold glasshouse until January/February when you can move them into the warm so they produce some new cuttings for you to take again. Only keep plants that were disease free and had no sign of White Rust disease. If yours did have this disease, you are best to burn and destroy them and buy in new stock next year.

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My Son with his Carved Pumpkin

Finally this week, don’t forget to carve out your pumpkins for Halloween in readiness for next Saturday evening. This is a great activity in which to involve the children under a little supervision, and the results can be quite dramatic, like the pumpkin my son carved out last year.

Listen to Andrew on BBC Radio Suffolk on Saturdays between 8.00 and 9.00am.