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Sow perennials for next year

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Refresh pots for autumn

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Grow guaranteed frost-hardy plants!

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Garden News Plants & Puzzles

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The annuals in our garden are still working hard, but there’s still time for some late sowings to fill next year’s borders with perennials. Many perennials are easy to grow from seed and offer an inexpensive way to enjoy masses of colour next year – and for years to come. Some will even flower in their first year if sown in early spring, but that usually requires a heated propagator in February or March. If you sow now, you won’t need artificial heat as they’ll grow happily in ordinary outdoor temperatures, so you can sow them in a cold greenhouse or on a shady windowsill.

Some perennials also need a cold period to trigger flowering. Aquilegias and some lychnis, for example, won’t bloom until the summer after sowing. Aquilegias sown now will flower next summer, but if you wait until February, you’ll be waiting until 2027! Sowing now speeds things up by a whole year.

You’ll need fresh compost and clean trays and pots. Transplant seedlings into cell trays to grow on, then plant them in their flowering positions in late autumn or next spring. If the seedlings are still small, it’s often safer to overwinter them in a cold greenhouse rather than planting them out.

• Achilleas suit sunny borders and attract pollinators. Good mixes are available and plants are drought-tolerant once established.

• Lupins are easy from seed. Choose named varieties over cheap mixes for best results. Protect young plants from slugs and snails.

• Aquilegias come in a wide range of shapes and sizes and look best in drifts. Once settled, they usually self-seed.

•_Lychnis coronaria_, in magenta, white or blush, is a great filler with silvery leaves – ideal with lavender and other drought-lovers.

August is a magical month of abundance in the kitchen garden as plots give rise to bountiful harvests. Late summer isn’t simply about admiring neat rows of swelling onions and marvelling at mammoth marrows – it’s a time to maximise yields, bulk up stocks of plants for next season and get planting to keep treats coming over the colder months. Our crop-by-crop advice will help you get the most out of your late summer veg plot.

**Raspberry pruning is a berry big deal!**

When summer-fruiting raspberries finish cropping, pruning holds the key to a successful harvest next year. Summer raspberries (floricanes) are borne on stems that grew the previous year. After cropping in late summer, these old, woody stems should be cut down to ground level, leaving space for the youngest stems, which will bear next year’s fruit, to develop. Tie the strongest of these fresh green stems to horizontal wires, a hand width apart. Autumn-fruiting raspberries (called primocanes) should not be cut down until late winter, because their crop of sweet, juicy berries will be borne on the current season’s stems. Use fruit cages or netting to protect raspberries if birds are pinching treats.

Second early and maincrop potatoes can be ready for harvesting this month. When early crops flower (or if buds drop), it’s a sign that buried treasure awaits. Use a garden fork to gently lift a small area of soil, taking care not to spear tubers, and see if your spuds are big enough to harvest. With maincrops, however, allow the foliage to turn yellow if you plan to store the potatoes rather than use them straight away. Leave harvested tatties on the soil to dry in the sun for a day and discard any that are rotten before storing. To keep delicious harvests coming, fill a large tub with multi-purpose compost and plant ‘Maris Peer’ or ‘Charlotte’ seed potatoes: moved into a frost-free greenhouse or conservatory when temperatures dip, these spuds will make a fantastic Christmas harvest!

Summer-fruiting strawberries run out of steam in August, so turn your thoughts to bumper crops next season. Examine plants for long stems, called runners, which carry baby plants. Peg these plantlets down into the soil or into small pots of multi-purpose compost and water well. Once young plants are actively growing, the stem can be cut from the parent. Water without splashing the crown of strawberry plants, which can encourage botrytis. After cropping is over, tired and shrivelled leaves should be cut away to open up the plant’s structure.

**Push the right buttons for perfect sprouts**

Brussels sprouts are a slow-growing but rewarding crop. While firm soil holds the key to tight buttons, and autumn frosts intensify their flavour, plants need a little TLC this month. These tall brassicas should be staked to prevent damage from wind rock, while earthing up soil around their roots provides extra stability. Yellowing leaves should be removed. Sprouts (and other brassicas) are at risk from caterpillar attack. Ensure cabbage white butterflies can’t lay eggs on leaves by covering crops in fine netting. It will prevent pigeons damaging crops, too.

Shallow-rooted onions should be kept weed-free as bulbs swell and cut down on watering from midsummer. Watch out for foliage turning yellow and keeling over – this is your window of opportunity to harvest onions, which should be carried out before foliage shrivels altogether. Carefully lift bulbs using a fork and let them ‘ripen’ by drying in full sun for a fortnight before storing in a cool, dry, frost-free place. For an earlier crop, plant autumn onion sets such as ‘Electric’ and ‘Senshyu’ from September. Over-wintering onions are slower to grow but will be ready by midsummer next year. Got a gap to fill? Sow winter-hardy spring onion ‘White Lisbon’ into shallow drills between August and October. Crops will be ready from March.

**Savour salad days (well, at least into autumn)**

Cut-and-come-again salads provide a ready supply of tasty leaves that can be snipped as needed, but traditional lettuces that form dense hearts, such as butterhead and cos types, are less forgiving. If left in the ground for too long once mature, these veg plot staples have a tendency to bolt (run to seed), which ruins their taste, so harvest promptly. Winter butterhead lettuce ‘Valdor’, which can be sown now, is acclaimed for its resistance to botrytis and low temperatures. If you have a greenhouse, put it to good use over winter by growing hardy leaves such as mizuna, rocket and mustard. Started in trays now, they can be transplanted into pots or greenhouse borders in autumn.

Harvest runner beans while young and they’ll be tender without a hint of stringiness, while regular picking encourages plants into producing more pods. Pinch out the tips of stems once they reach the tops of canes: it will prevent unwanted foliage flailing around and encourage fresh growth lower down. Liquid feed with potassium-rich tomato food to keep crops coming. August drought is the biggest threat to thirsty runners, because plants that wither won’t bounce back, so water well. Black bean aphid rapidly infests plants, so unless ladybirds are feasting on sap-sucking bugs, blast aphids from stems and the undersides of leaves using a hose. After cropping is over, cut plants down but leave roots in the soil to boost nitrogen levels.

**Harvest sweetcorn for a-maize-ing flavour!**

Nothing beats the flavour of homegrown sweetcorn, but enjoying this taste sensation relies on harvesting cobs at their prime (sweetness ebbs away from the moment the crop is cut, as sugar turns to starch). Choose cobs where tassels at the end have darkened and peel back a little of the husk to reveal the densely packed kernels. Pierce one with a fingernail: if the liquid that emerges is a creamy texture, the cob is ripe, but if it’s watery it’s not ready. Where plants have multiple cobs, remove tiddlers that stand no chance of maturing before summer is over, so plants can direct energy into fattening up the biggest cobs.

While pumpkins relish summer heat, as the fruits swell rapidly, dry soil can prompt outbreaks of powdery mildew, so keep crops well watered (taking care to aim water at the soil and avoid splashing leaves). If size matters, thin fruits to just several per plant. Sit fruits on straw, tiles or wood to prevent crops rotting on damp soil. Pumpkins store best if they’ve ripened evenly. Snipping excess leaves from sprawling plants allows the August sunshine to hit fruits and speed up ripening.

If you have a glut of carrots, don’t worry: as long as soil is well drained, roots can be left in the ground and pulled as needed. There’s still time for a late carrot sowing to extend the harvest season. Try ‘Autumn King 2’, which will yield baby roots before the worst of the winter weather. If temperatures dip sharply, however, autumn-sown carrots can be shielded under cloches, while mature roots in the ground can be kept snug under a layer of straw. Direct-sown radishes are a quick crop to keep the taste of summer going and can be ready to pull within a month. Perpetual spinach sown in autumn is a winner for flavoursome leaves that can be picked throughout the colder months, with good resistance to bolting.

#### Yes, you really can grow these fabulous fruits here in the UK

**Words** Peter McDermott, managing director of YouGarden nursery **Photos** Peter McDermott, Shutterstock

_One of the YouGarden citrus growers surrounded by plants in Italy_

There’s something wonderfully uplifting about growing citrus at home. Maybe it’s the glossy green leaves, or the sweetly-scented flowers that pop out even in the depths of winter. Or perhaps it’s just the sheer thrill of picking a lemon or lime from your very own tree. Whatever it is, citrus bring a dash of sunshine to your garden or conservatory – and yes, even here in the UK, you can get them to crop.

We’ve been championing citrus for years at _:a[YouGarden.com]{href='https://YouGarden.com' }_, and we’ve put together a cracking range of varieties that are ideal for British gardeners. With a bit of know-how and the right kit, you’ll be harvesting your own fruit in no time. And what’s more, they look terrific all year round – so even when the fruit’s not ready, they’re still earning their keep.

First things first – what to grow? If you’re new to citrus, you really can’t go wrong with a lemon ‘Eureka’. It’s one of the most reliable types, fruiting young and regularly, and giving you the classic lemon flavour that’s perfect in everything from salad dressings to a G&T. Lemon ‘Lisbon’ is another popular choice – a bit more vigorous and equally tasty.

Fancy something a little different? Try a lime ‘Tahiti’, which gives juicy, seedless fruit with a sharp, clean flavour – ideal for summer drinks. If it’s sweetness you’re after, go for an Calamondin orange, a lovely ornamental tree with fragrant white flowers and small, tangy fruits – perfect for marmalade or as a garnish.

You could even plant lemon, lime and orange together and get three fruits from one pot! It’s a talking point and a space-saver.

_Stripy citrus look great and are very popular_

Citrus need good drainage – soggy roots are their number one enemy. I always pot mine into a loam-based compost such as John Innes No.2 and I mix in about 20–30% grit or Perlite to keep things airy. If you can get hold of specialist citrus compost, even better, but a good gritty loam does the trick. Pick a pot just a bit bigger than the rootball and make sure it has plenty of drainage holes. Terracotta is ideal as it breathes and helps stop the roots from getting waterlogged. Don’t go too big too soon – citrus prefer to be slightly pot-bound.

Citrus are greedy feeders – they’re evergreen and often fruit and flower at the same time, so they need plenty of nutrients to keep them going. From March to October, I feed mine weekly with a high-nitrogen citrus fertiliser.

This keeps the foliage lush and supports fruit development. A knowledgeable citrus grower told me you should feed year-round and always when the temperature is above 5C.

In winter, switch to a balanced citrus feed once a month. This keeps plants ticking over without encouraging soft new growth, which could be damaged by cold.

If you notice yellowing between the veins of the leaves, it could be a sign of magnesium deficiency. A quick fix is to dissolve Epsom salts in water and give the plant a foliar spray.

_Flowers on citrus plants are an added benefit_

Citrus don’t like being soggy, but they won’t thank you for drying out completely either. Keep the compost just moist, so not wet and not bone dry. In summer, you might need to water every other day if it’s hot. In winter, ease right off – maybe just a trickle once every 10-14 days. Rainwater is best if you can collect it, as it’s slightly acidic, which citrus like. But if you’re using tap water, don’t worry; just make sure it’s at room temperature.

Most citrus are not frost-hardy, so in the UK you’ll need to bring them under cover from around October. A cool conservatory, greenhouse, porch or unheated room is ideal – anywhere that stays above 5C and gets plenty of light. They don’t like central heating, so keep them away from radiators. Watch out for pests like scale insect and red spider mite; these can sneak in over winter when the air is dry. A light misting and a gentle wipe-over of the leaves every so often keeps them looking sharp.

If moving plants isn’t an option, wrap the pots with fleece and bubble wrap, and cover the tops with fleece on frosty nights, but it’s always better to move them somewhere sheltered if you can.

_Life really can give you British lemons!_

With the right care, your citrus will reward you with fruit, flowers and fragrant, glossy evergreen foliage all year round. They’re not difficult and a certainly a bit different from your average patio plant. Think of them like a houseguest from warmer climes: they’ll thrive if you cater for their needs. And once you’ve grown your first lemon or lime, you’ll be hooked.

_Calamondin oranges are often used in marmalades and drinks_

Why not visit _:a[YouGarden.com]{href='https://YouGarden.com' }_ to explore the range and give it a go? There’s nothing quite like growing your own slice of the Med – even if the view out the window is more Lincolnshire than Liguria!

There are so many reasons to grow flowers on your vegetable patch. For starters, they add another dimension to how your plot looks, introducing bright colours into a predominantly green space. Some flowers will have pollinators buzzing with joy and others are good at protecting the plants by keeping unwanted visitors away in a natural and eco-friendly manner. Lots of insects are scent-led, so strongly perfumed blooms can have a tremendously positive impact on your crops.

Flowering herbs have multiple benefits. Chives, rosemary, thyme and oregano are all highly scented and attract pollinators, but also ward off destructive creatures such as aphids, carrot fly and bean beetles as well as looking beautiful, needing little attention and being drought tolerant and readily available to cut for kitchen recipes – what’s not to like?

Calendula and marigolds (tagetes) are great companion plants; their colourful blooms look vibrant throughout summer and many varieties emit a strong scent that suppresses nematodes. Tall plants like sunflowers give shade to those growing below and are a hit with bees and hoverflies and, once they’ve gone to seed, the birds, too. Summer wouldn’t be summer without beautiful and fragrant sweet peas; enjoy picking a posy while the bees flit from flower to flower. It’s hard to resist a row or two of them.

Growing flowers on your veg patch gives you another reason to stop and take stock of all your hard work before embarking on more planting, weeding and harvesting.

• **Marigolds and herbs like lavender deter insects and protect valuable crops with their scent.**

• **Growing flowers attracts pollinators – a win for wildlife and crops needing pollination**!

• **Nasturtiums and borage help by luring pests from crops and also offer edible flowers as a bonus.**

• **Growing flowers on a veg patch also gives you a reason to grow another crop to harvest; beautiful cut flowers!**

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The late Beth Chatto always used to call yellow the ‘spinning thread’, because you could weave it through a border, just like a Flemish weaver using golden highlights on a huge tapestry. It seems to flicker and bounce the eye along, adding extra vibrancy to blues and purples, but also blending with oranges and warm reds. It’s the most useful colour in the garden for unifying and softening planting because it slots into the colour palette well without a hint of starkness, soothing the eye, rather like calming background music.

Many of you will know and grow the bright yellow, January-flowering trumpet daffodil ‘Rijnveld’s Early Sensation’. This British-bred daffodil is the first tallish daff to flower, so the Cornish research station Rosewarne began using it to breed from in the 1980s in order to develop early cut flowers. One seedling is a pale, greenish-yellow trumpet daffodil, ‘January Silver’, and another was ‘Spring Dawn’, creamy white and lemon-yellow. Both are now readily available and are January flowering. You can also use the March-flowering, multi-headed ‘Moonlight Sensation’ and ‘Golden Echo’. It’s difficult to weave daffs through flower borders due to their fading foliage, so try large containers instead. Allow the bulbs to die down naturally after flowering and you should then get another two years of blooms. After that, the bulbs can be replanted elsewhere.

There are also compact, pallid yellow hybrid wallflowers, available as plugs. ‘Sugar Rush Primrose’ F1 will flower for many weeks in March and April, but you’ll need to plant it with a contrasting colour. The moody lilac-purple Triumph tulip ‘Negrita’ will bloom from mid-April onwards for about two to three weeks, and this combination is suited to containers and borders. It returns well if left in the border and cut back to one leaf after flowering. There’s no need to lift tulips unless you need the space.

If you have a damper spot, globeflowers, or trollius, should do well for you. Like many pond-side plants, they need to be above the water line in winter, but like damp roots in the growing season. The greenish-yellow ‘Taleggio’ used to be a weak plant but micropropagation eradicated the virus responsible.

‘Lemon Queen’ is also being sold, but the yellow globes aren’t quite as cool in tone. It seems to be a stronger plant, so if you succeed with dark astrantias, trollius should do well planted close by. You could also sprinkle acid-yellow flowers in shade, and the biennial Smyrnium perfoliatum lights up darker shade.

The cushion spurge _Euphorbia epithymoides_ succeeds in shade too, and both of these acid-yellow plants go well with bluebells, grape hyacinths and scillas.

You can also create a shimmering golden veil using _Milium effusum_ ‘Aureum’, commonly called Bowles’s golden grass. This will also self-seed. _Aquilegia chrysantha_ ‘Yellow Queen’, a long-spurred, summer-flowering aquilegia, and _Digitalis lutea_, a slender, lemon-yellow foxglove with tiny thimbles, can also be used as a running thread through bright shade and both can be raised from seeds.

One of the easiest shade plants is _Epimedium versicolor_ ‘Sulphureum’, grown for its trembling wands of delicate, pallid yellow flowers held above heart-shaped green leaves. This hybrid epimedium tolerates dry shade well, although it does make a large clump. The foliage is generally cut off during early winter so the fresh flowers emerge just before the bronze-tinted new foliage.

_Anthemis tinctoria_ ‘E.C. Buxton’ has lucid yellow daisies held above dark green filigree foliage in June. Long stems support each daisy, so this is like a series of spinning plates. Achillea ‘Moonshine’, best at a sunny edge, can be interspersed with blue perennials such as geranium ‘Spinners’, nepeta ‘Chettle Blue’ and salvia ‘Caradonna’.

You might also consider hemerocallis ‘Whichford’ as well and if there’s space, _Phlomis russeliana_, the Turkish sage, will smother the ground, sending up strong square stems decorated with whorls of bee-friendly, lemon-yellow lipped flowers. The 1.8m-high and more lemon-yellow scabious, Cephalaria gigantea, is one of the best cut flowers to grow.

Daisies love a bright spot. The first to flower is a heliopsis called ‘Summer Nights’. Dark stems and foliage underpin clusters of yellow flowers, each with a reddish centre, so this one seems to smoulder in the border from June onwards. It’s followed by the drooping coneflower Ratibida pinnata. This perennial isn’t easy to find, but the tall, columnar Rudbeckia subtomentosa ‘Henry Eilers’ is. It’s drought tolerant, so will flower in dry summers, but use three to make a clump, or weave several through the border.

Some taller daisies are struggling with our drier summers, and helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ is not enjoying them. But you can try one called ‘Sheila’s Sunshine’. It has similar lemon-yellow flowers to ‘Lemon Queen’ but it’s taller. This isn’t for a small garden because the roots travel.

All helianthus, whether annual or perennial, have flowers that chase the sun so consider your position for them. Brown-centred rudbeckias with golden-yellow flowers have horizontal blooms at knee height or shorter, and there are several on offer. Look out for ‘Little Goldstar’, a 30cm-high perennial. The most useful is the tall, clump-forming ‘Herbstsonne’, perfect with taller grasses.

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It can be hard to like slugs in the gardens, even though they’re a vital cog in our ecosystems as well-known detritivores, and they can be a valuable part of the composting process in your heap.

They often munch through, it seems, all your favourite plants – it’s as if they know you’ve put a lot of hard work onto sowing rows of lovely veg and planting out spring and summer displays.

For environmentally-friendly and organic growers, it can be really tricky to curb the problem in spring and right through summer – if not tackled it can be very problematic. The best overall solution, of course, is to encourage as wildlife-friendly a garden as possible and many of your garden visitors will take care of slug overpopulations. However, this isn’t always completely practical in the day-by-day maintenance of your garden.

You can use cloches to cover your plants on the veg patch, or try a beer trap, some grit or egg shells to deter them; a bit of trial and error is recommended as some might not work – you may find a method that works better than others. Prince Charles, a long-time organic gardener, uses a novel way to collect slugs – in his kitchen garden they place slates and tiles around the beds. Slugs congregate under these moist areas, only for the gardeners to collect them all up in the morning! Here are some more methods to try out…

Vitax Slug Gone pellets are made of sheep’s wool and irritate slugs’ feet. Be generous with the pellets for best effect.

Ferric phosphate pellets are more eco-friendly as they don’t harm pets, birds or other animals. Use sparingly.

Nightly slug patrols with a bucket works wonders. Dispose of in a field or put in the freezer before disposing.

Nemaslug is a non-harmful biological control to water onto plants – available from :a[www.nematodesdirect.co.uk]{href='http://www.nematodesdirect.co.uk' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'}.

Lavender is one of the most consistently popular plants that everyone wants to grow in their gardens, topping social media and seasonal plant sales charts week after week – and it’s easy to see why that might be so.

The strongly aromatic foliage and attractive spikes of flowers of these drought-tolerant and versatile shrubs evoke strong memories of foreign holidays, cherished places and people. They’re also highly attractive to bees and other pollinators.

Being sun-lovers they’re ideal for sunny borders with other Mediterranean-style plants, either as individual features or grown to create an informal edge or low-clipped hedge in a formal garden, using compact or larger varieties according to need and space. They also lend themselves to being grown in pots on sun-drenched patios, where they’ll flower for weeks.

With some exceptions, varieties of French lavender L. stoechas and English lavender L. angustifolia flower first in early summer, while those of L. intermedia flower slightly later.

Besides sun and good airflow, the most critical need is to have well-drained soil, particularly in winter, as it’s waterlogging when dormant that causes the demise of most lavender plants, so dig in plenty of grit if your soil is heavy and plant on a slight mound so water doesn’t collect.

They also do better on neutral sandy to chalky soil, than acid, although the varieties of L. stoechas are more tolerant. They hate being shaded or overgrown by encroaching perennials which create damp, humid air, causing die-back. If growing in pots use a peat-free compost with added John Innes and add Perlite or grit to improve drainage. Clip bushes after flowering, removing up to a third of growth. If allowed to get too straggly and old their lifespan, which can be up to 20 years is significantly shortened.

Perennial plants are very popular in the garden because they grow back year after year. The definition of a perennial is a plant that lives more than two years and in most cases they will live for many, many years and get better with age. But some perennial are short-lived and only live for three, four or five years.

Some of these perennials such as Verbena bonariensis and aquilegia naturally die after a few years even when grown in the correct soil conditions, but fortunately many of them self-seed. Others such as penstemon and erysimum will sometimes live a little longer, but they tend to weaken and get leggy after a few years and flowering will decline.

In this situation it’s best to replace the plants with new ones every few years.

Most perennials are fairly easy to propagate by seed or cuttings. Many will naturally self-seed in the borders or you can easily raise new plants by sowing packet seeds. These are best sown in pots or trays and the seedlings grown on ready for the garden.

Other types can be propagated by taking short cuttings at this time of the year and rooted on in pots or trays. The rooted cuttings can then be grown on to produce strong new plants for planting in the garden next spring.

1 – Take short cuttings of penstemons to produce fresh new plants when the base of the original plant starts to get bare and woody.

2 – Verbena bonariensis plants weaken and die after two or three years. They will self-seed or can be raised from seed in pots.

3 – Erysimum, the perennial wallflower gets very woody and growth slows down, but can easily be propagated from short cuttings.

4 – Aquilegia often start to deteriorate after two or three years, but most types will naturally self-seed to produce new plants.

We never know what the weather might throw at us here in the UK but there is no doubt that over the last 50 years, summers have got generally warmer. That has meant they are drier too - and that has an impact on our plants.

Many will need plenty of watering but there are some shrubs that positively thrive in drought conditions and will continue quite happily no matter how dry it gets!

**:a[Abelia grandiflora]{href='http://www.crocus.co.uk' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'}** \*\*\*\*

Semi-evergreen rounded shrub. Pink-flushed fragrant flowers from June. Height: 3m (10ft) Spread: 4m (13ft). Tip: Site in shelter in cold districts.

**:a[Ceanothus ‘Gloire de Versailles’]{href='http://www.burncoose.co.uk' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'}** \*\*\*\*

Deciduous shrub, with glossy green leaves. Pale blue flowers in August. Height/Spread: 1.5m (5ft). Tip: Grow against a sunny wall in cold areas.

**:a[Hebe albicans]{href='http://www.jacksonsnurseries.co.uk' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'}** \*\*\*\*

Rounded evergreen shrub. Glossy grey-green leaves. White flowers in summer. Height: 0.6m (24in). Spread: 0.9m (36in). Tip: Good for windy, coastal sites.

**:a[Buddleja weyeriana ‘Bicolour’]{href='http://www.crocus.co.uk' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'}** \*\*\*\*

Spreading dark-leaved shrub with bicoloured scented flowers adored by insects. Height/Spread: 2.4m (8ft). Tip: Prune off spent flowers to keep blooms coming.

**:a[Arbutus unedo ‘Compacta’]{href='http://www.burncoose.co.uk' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'}** \*\*\*\*

Dense evergreen bold-leaved shrub. White flowers and orange fruit from September. Height/Spread: 3m (10ft). Tip: Tolerant of chalky soils as well as acid.

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