September 2018
Autumn is up on us. Nights are drawing in and we are now officially in meteorological autumn.
Astronomically however autumn is still a few weeks off and doesn’t start until the 23rd September. Bit confusing I know but it’s all to do with the autumn equinox which can fall on a different date each year. So autumn or not, the weather is definitely changing and it’s time for gardeners to get busy.
Our wild flower meadow has been looking a bit too wild lately so we have cut it down earlier than scheduled to give us chance to get some more wild flower seeds germinated. Unfortunately the Beast from the East wiped out the oxeye daisy’s this year so it was lacking that wow factor that it had last year. It’s still been heaven for insects but we want it visually beautiful as well.
This time of year gets really busy in the garden as the soil gets damp but is still warm. Perfect conditions for germinating grass seed on your bare patches and planting new plants as they can get their roots established before they go dormant for the winter.
The remaining street planting and garden hedges in phase three and four will commence soon and we will be tackling repairs to damaged turf on the open spaces along with applying autumn lawn feed. If you plan on doing the same make sure you use the correct feed as spring and summer lawn feed will contain too much nitrogen for this time of year.
Autumn is also the time to tackle those pesky leather jackets that caused havoc with everyone’s lawns last spring. You have probably seen a lot of daddy long legs about taking an interest in your lawn. Be aware of what they are up to as its egg laying time. The eggs will hatch into leatherjacket grubs and feed off grass roots until they are ready to pupate into the adult daddy longlegs.
We will be applying nemitodes to deal with this problem on the grass in the open spaces. These nemitodes are microscopic worms that are watered into the soil and seek out the leatherjacket grubs and kill them. It works best if two applications made, one in autumn and again in spring.
You will not find them on the shelf in the garden centre as they are living creatures that need to be kept in the fridge. Buy them off the internet where they will be dispatched quickly with full instructions on storage and application.