AUTUMN PREPARATIONS IN THE GARDEN

It's a while since I last posted.  Almost a month.  Little is happening now in the garden except preparations for winter.  I'm no winter gardener, I'm afraid.  I've bought two new mini-greenhouses (my old one was collapsing with age) and put them side by side at the top of the garden, facing south.  The lovely red pelargoniums have now been removed from the trough at the front of my home, under the living room window, cut down and potted into large pots.  For the moment, they are out of the wind in a mini-greenhouse which has been left open for the time being.  The Italian parsley (a biennial, said to be hardy) is in there too, as well as some pots of herbs, like lemon thyme - just to get them out of the way of my feet on the top patio for now.  The front trough has now been replanted with tulips for next spring and on top of them some little viola plants (like the ones I grew in a pot last year, shown below) which I am sincerely hoping will be happy there.  It can be quite exposed at the front of my house but it is also a sunny spot, so fingers crossed.  It's worth taking a chance. 

Violas

The trailing fuchsias, Swingtime and Southgate, which I grow in four hanging baskets at the back of my home will need to be protected very soon.  I'm never quite sure how to go about it because I don't have a large greenhouse to store them in while they remain in their baskets, and the mini-greenhouses are only plastic covered, not glass with heating.  Last year I overwintered them, still in their baskets, crammed into a mini-greenhouse and protected with fleece but several died although quite a number of plants did survive.  This year I think I will try repotting the fuchsias in individual pots within pots and protecting with fleece.  The fuchsias will have to be cut back quite hard with all leaves removed - rotting leaves can spread disease (that rhymes!).  I want the fuchsias to go into a semi-dormant state with the compost on their roots only slightly, very slightly, damp; just ticking over sleepily until next spring.  That's the plan.

Swingtime trailing fuchsias

I'm going to remove much of the old compost around the fuchsias' roots and replace with a little fresh compost which is just slightly damp in the bag in which it came.  The old compost was treated in early August with Provado 500 by Bayer, a systemic product that is said to be effective against Vine Weevil larvae, so I am hoping that the plants will have sucked up much of the chemical and be protected.  Who knows?  Anyway, it's too late for me to be treating them again as the fuchsias are now losing their leaves and not actively growing.  I'm afraid it's all trial and error for me. 



The bush tomatoes, Losetto and Tumbling Tom, have now finished although I am still eating the ripening ones from a bowl in my kitchen.  There are lots of flowers and tiny green raspberries on the Polka raspberry canes but I have a feeling that the weather will come and kill them off before they swell and ripen.  All the same, I am still picking a few raspberries which, considering the amount of raspberries I picked during the summer months, is pretty good.