What not to do in your garden this week

...or what I’m not doing, at any rate

Don’t plant your tulips yet

‘ Should I, shouldn’t I…?’ Photo by Paolo Nicolello

I KNOW that it’s everywhere on social media, but if you haven’t yet, just hang on in there and wait for a little longer before you get your bulbs in the ground. There’s a good chance that this not just mild, but actually warm weather will mean that newly-planted bulbs will start sprouting. Light, and warmth and a little bit of moisture… that’s basically what a bulb wants.

But if you have already got them in the ground, don’t worry. And things like narcissi and crocus will be ok as they flower earlier. What I urge you to do generally when you’re out in the garden is not to sweat the small stuff. It doesn’t matter. It’s your garden and gardens aren’t static. The ‘being in the now’ - which I THINK means not worrying about the what-ifs, does a busy mind far more good than kicking yourself and beating yourself up about having done something wrong. Essentially I’m saying: whatever. Anything goes. Relax and be happy and enjoy gardening for what it is rather than what you’re told it should be.

Don’t tidy up the leaves from your beds

You may remember this article from a couple of months ago: my advice on not tidying up leaves still stands. The autumn colours of trees and hedges are brilliant at the moment, and my hornbeam hedge is turning a satisfactory shade of yellow-brown. It’s currently shedding just a few more leaves, having got rid of a few earlier on, back in August, when it was just too hot to hang on to that extra layer.

The idea of sweeping up leaves must mainly stem from an idea of tidiness, and maybe hygiene and ‘letting your soil breathe’ whatever that means. But, and I admit this is mainly out of a slight idleness, I’ve never cleared my leaves from beds, apart from where I brush them aside to plant bulbs in November through to February. But even then, I sometimes scrabble the leaves back over where I’ve dug, in a super-casual way, as part one of my five-layered squirrel defence. However clever your resident squirrel may be, to him or her, newly-disturbed ground represents a massive clue, and so it logically follows that the less disturbed the soil looks, the bigger the chance that the squirrel won’t head for it the second you walk away. Not foolproof, I underline, just one of the many, many layers I employ to outwit these pesky little things. (Or not so little - I’ve seen some monster squirrels in London, fat and contented after dining on the neighbourhood’s autumn plantings).

Based both on the principle that it doesn’t seem to do the bluebells any harm in the woods, and also on the fact that gathering all the leaves and storing them in bags in the shed for them to rot down and make leaf-mould, which then needs to be taken back out into the garden and replaced in the same spot where I gathered the original leaves from in the first place, has always struck me as a step too far and also something of a busy-making exercise. Yes, pick them up from your lawns, and yes, of course remove them from paving as wet leaves will just make you slip otherwise, and yes, do put all these that you do pick up into bags and then into your shed to then place on your beds later. But moving them from beds? No. Think forest floor.

Don’t cut down your dahlias yet

Unless you need the pots for bulbs. (But then you’re not planting bulbs just yet!) The dahlias are flowering like crazy and are loving the temperatures and the rain. They may collapse under some of the heavier downpours, so a few well-placed sticks and twigs here and there wouldn’t go astray.

Don’t write off being outside

Psychologically we’re well into autumn, but the actual fact is that the current ambient climate is nearer that of late summer. So don’t forget to get out and enjoy those daylight hours while you can. I do this in the easiest of ways - if it’s dry and warm, as soon as it’s light I’ll take that first half-pint of tea outside. I’ll be wearing a big snuggly fleecy top from John Lewis pulled over pyjamas, (I buy my children these tops each year for Christmas, and then each year swiftly and silently appropriate them as necessary) and then some easy garden shoes from Bud to Seed , with woollen insoles which are an optional, but which I would say are the game changer here for bare feet. This is absolutely not an ad, just two of my best investments ever. This get-up will never get me in the fashion pages or a ‘what the hortirati are wearing in the garden’ article, but do I care? No. Can the neighbours see me? Yes. Will this affect the rest of my day? No.

My trusty outdoor Chelsea boots

For a conversation on what to wear outside when it does eventually get chillier, you might like the chat we had back in January Actually, I’m thinking of getting one of those Harkila rechargeable waistcoats as an alternative to central heating. Recommended by you were Uniqlo thermals, Harkila ,Dilling, Finnesterre merino base layers, and Patagonia.

This next one is neither a do or a dont; it’s more of a ‘What do you do?’

As unedited as ever, this is what’s currently flowering in my garden.

At the moment out in my garden I have in flower dahlias, begonias (yes really), roses, verbena, amaranthus, leycesteria, hesperantha - which used to be shizostylis which was far more dangerous to pronounce - gladioli, calendula, gaura and nasturtiums. I so want to pick them and bring them in to enjoy them. Although as you know I do find it hard to bring myself to cut flowers from the garden, normally at this time of year, I’d see these flowers more if they were inside and so do steel myself and do the deed before the hammering rain does the job for me. But while I’m still outside a bit more than usual? While these flowers still look just so happy and the colours are just so cheer-bringing? While those big lumbering bumblebees are still making the most of them? I think I’ll wait a little longer.

How about you?

In other news, the small garden design series which has just launched has had a really positive reception. If you’d like to join in, please do head over to it. This easy-going series is intended as useful and enjoyable at the same time, and you can follow along and engage as much or as little as you like - it’s totally your call. You can find the first episode here. It’s is available to paying subscribers and is going to consist of at least twice-monthly articles, with extra updates and a zoom here and there. With a yearly membership fee of £70, which works out at around £1.30 a week and gives access to all previous articles , I can assure you that it will be good value all the way. And as well as my sharing experience and tricks from over the years, I can see that this community has already brilliantly started sharing thoughts with each other. Conversations are being held. Discussions are being had. Friendships are being made. Do join us - we’d love to have you with us.

So…. there’s so much I need to hear from you about. Best gardening kit? What do you do about cutting flowers? What are you doing/not doing in your garden this week? Anything else?