September

It’s that busy time of year again when the rush is on to get the autumn jobs done before the leaves start falling. The soil is still warm and the extra rain fall and shorter day length makes it perfect conditions for planting.

You must have noticed that the area around the sand park is looking a bit sparse compared to other parts of Loftus. A lot of the plants originally planted didn’t make it through the heat of last summer so this autumn the contractors will be back to replace the trees and shrubs that died.

We have grown on a lot of plants in our nursery over the summer which are just about ready to plant out and we have also bought in small plug plants and potted them on. This is a much cheaper way of getting replacement plants than paying the 4k which it is costing to buying them in. It just means an extra bit of extra work in nurturing them along.

Grass seed will germinate quickly at this time of year and stand a much better chance of survival than spring sowing. So if you have any bare patches on your lawn now is the time to tackle them. Remember that grass seed requires a good bond will the soil to germinate and stay alive so just throwing seed down without lightly forking over the soil first, simply will not do. You will waste seed and get disheartened when you only get a few tufts, so take the time to do the job properly. You shouldn’t need to water it but keep an eye on the weather, if we get a hot dry spell you may need to get out the hose pipe. keep the soil moist and your bare bits will recover. Your lawn will also benefit from an autumn fertilizer and a dose of Leatherjacket nematodes, all this is work we carry out on the amphitheatre each year.

The recent Loftus Lovely lawn competition has proven just what can be achieved with a bit of TLC and regular maintenance. We are delighted to be giving out quite a few Gold and Silver certificates at our awards ‘Do‘ on Friday.

The Loftus Blooming Beautiful category also had some fantastic entries and again many were gold standard so if you entered please come along on Friday and find out how well you did.

Sadly, nobody entered the crazy container class which I was looking forward to and only one entered Loftus through a lens. Shame, as we all have access to a camera on our phones. Was this poor response because folk simply forgot about the competition? I wonder! May be next year will get a few more entries.

But WOW! What a fantastic response to the painted pebble Class. A fabulous 38 entries and over a hundred and fifty took part in the online voting. So, please bring along all children who entered.

We have some very creative kids living at loftus who have inspired Paul and I to do something ‘Arty’ ourselves with the pebbles, probably in the park.

So watch this space.