The beginning of October is a good time to plan for next year and Monty begins the process of taking out plants which are in the wrong place and either moving or dividing others. He also gives advice on making leaf mould from fallen leaves and how to use it.
Frances Tophill helps a gardener whose plants are not thriving where they are planted, and Joe Swift visits a small garden full of great design tips. Nick Bailey meets a soil zoologist to find out about the abundance of life which lives under our feet.
Adam Frost is on a community allotment in Manchester where growing food is providing solace and support to refugees, and we travel to Staffordshire to visit a cottage garden which has been planted with a particular emphasis on colour.
In Gardeners World episode 28 2017:
1. Winter salads
At Longmeadow, Monty would never be without his winter salads and the empty beds inside his unheated greenhouse provide the perfect spot. In a mild winter, you could also try growing them under a cloche or in a cold frame – anything that helps to give them that little bit of extra protection. Oriental greens are always a good bet as they are pretty hardy, as are certain varieties of lettuce.
2. Grow your own blackberries
Cultivated blackberries are more productive and better behaved than their wild relatives, and can be trained in a variety of ways. Blackberries can ramble over arches, pergolas, trellis and along wires on walls and fences. If you are short on space there are compact, thornless types of blackberry that will grow perfectly well in containers.
3. How to prune & train a blackberry
Blackberries and most hybrid berries, such as tayberry, wineberry, boysenberry and loganberry, all crop on long stems or canes. All of them are vigorous and require annual pruning and training for easy management.
4. Acer leaf scorch
The attractive delicate foliage of Japanese maples (Acer palmatum) is prone to leaf scorch. Cultivars with heavily dissected foliage are particularly prone. Scorch occurs following environmental stresses, such as drying winds, and leads to the foliage turning brown.
5. Planting under trees
It can be a challenge to establish plant cover under the canopy of large trees. Shade and lack of moisture are both problems in these conditions, but there are a number of plants that will tolerate these situations.