Autumn can be a magical time in your garden. There’s a slight chill in the air and if you’re lucky enough to have trees in your garden you can watch first hand as their leaves transform from green to orange, red or brown, before finally fluttering to the ground, ready to be crunched underfoot. As the leaves fall there’s a sense that the summer is over, even if the sun is still shining and the weather is mild. If you have fruit trees or bushes, chances are they’ll be straining under the weight of yet to be picked fruit – and now you have the task of picking, collecting, making chutneys or pies or simply freezing for another day.
Lots of people like to collect up their excess wind-fall apples and pears and leave in cardboard boxes outside their garden gates for neighbors and passing school children to help themselves to – but don’t worry if you decide to leave them on the ground, you never know they might make a tasty snack for a hungry family of blackbirds! The message is clear though – whatever you grow in your garden, it will be useful to someone or something!
There is still time in Autumn, while the soil is warm to plant up those spring bulbs – the more you plant the more amazing the display will be in the Spring. If you go for a mix of daffodils and crocuses remember the daffodils will be tallers so plant those crocuses in front. Do yourself a favour and invest in a proper bulb fork, this will make the hole-digging process much quicker.
If you’ve got an allotment then you’re harvesting time is right now. You’ve probably got some courgettes, beans and salad left so now is a good time to collect. If you’ve got more than you can eat then why not see if you can swap some of your produce with other allotment-growers? You never know you might be able to get rid of that glut of courgettes in return for a nice bottle of nettle wine! If you can’t do this then find some recipes for chutney – and remember, homemade jams, pickles and chutneys make excellent Christmas presents!
If the ground is still warm you could plant some seeds – this is more ideal of course, if you live in an area of the UK with a milder climate. A sheltered garden will probably work better too. Hardy annual seeds are best sown at this point in the year and there’s so many to choose from but we like cornflowers and ammi – these go well together and will bring up a nice white and blue mix of colour next year. They’re cheap to buy and are both reliably good.
Of course our attention at this time of year must also turn to our grass. If you can, it’s always a good idea to rake those fallen leaves off your lawn. You can do this with a simple rake and it shouldn’t take too long. If you’ve got a larger garden however, then you might like to consider a machine that also collects leaves such as the Bosch UniversalRake 900 Lawn Raker – It’s a powerful and efficient lawn raker that will enable you to free your lawn from moss, weeds, thatch and LEAVES, leaving it looking beautifully neat all year round.
The hard working Bosch Universal Rake 900 features an innovative and patented ‘jet collect’ system and 10 double-wound spring tines so it not only easily lifts surface debris it also creates an air flow which works to increase the rate of collection, and this maximises every single pass over your lawn. You can also expect better collection, increased convenience and time saving. The 14 slitting knives ensure that the lawn raker can get rid of deeper rooted thatch and any moss is cut and lifted with the minimum of effort from the user. It also comes with a pretty reasonable price tag – just £189 when you buy from us.
We’ve also got another great lawn machine that can help you at this time of the year, in fact it’s great for all the seasons – the Einhell GC-SC 4240P Petrol Scarifier.
The new Einhell GC-SC 4240 P petrol scarifier is a very efficient and reliable tool for ambitious hobby gardeners who want to produce a healthy, weed-free lawn through effective soil cultivation. With 18 high-grade steel blades, the ball-bearing blade shaft tackles weeds, moss and their roots in highly effective manner. A powerful four-stroke petrol engine provides ample torque for continuous progress with consistently good results. The GC-SC 4240 P is recommended for larger lawns of up to approx. 1,200 m².
Why Scarify?
During the autumn, the grass on your lawn goes into a kind of winter hibernation. Just like all plants, this is a way for the grass to protect itself against a possible bleak wintry climate. In the spring, if the temperature increases above 12°, the grass starts growing again.
However, in the meantime, the lawn has been neglected. Residue from mowing, dead grass and roots have formed a spongy layer at the bottom of the lawn surface. This is an ideal breeding ground for fungi and germs. This layer also retains water, so that the soil remains permanently moist, with this slowing down the growth of the grass. However, moist subsoil is also an ideal biotope for moss. This results in moss, weeds and grass all competing with each other in an effort to grow. Under these adverse conditions, a common type of grass such as English rye-grass, will often find itself being oppressed.
Fast-growing weeds and moss will take all of the light away and smother the grass. It is therefore important to intervene at this time. Spraying is a very efficient way of killing the competing weeds and moss. However, the layer of dead moss still remains in the lawn, and this prevents light and air from penetrating to the grass root. Moreover, this also makes the soil more acidic. This layer must therefore be mechanically removed. This is where a scarifying machine comes into action.
You may have made the decision to plant some more vegetables next Spring so now is the time to prepare the soil. You may find you need to undertake some serious weeding and digging but if you put the time in now, then you will reap the rewards as they say! And in this case the rewards are hopefully going to be a bounty of home-grown veg. You may choose to build some raised beds and these certainly make keeping the local wildlife away much easier as you can attach wire to the wood and build some form of protection.
If you’ve only got a small space then you probably won’t want to grown things like courgettes and squash as these take up a lot of space but you could instead grown things you like – such as garlic, spring onion, herbs, climbing beans or salad leaves that you keep cutting and they keep growing back, all from one plant. We’re sure you’ll agree, Autumn can be a busy time for us dedicated gardeners but of course it’s not all work, as there’s Halloween and Bonfire night to enjoy as well, which is probably why we all enjoy the Autumn so much!
