It's Autumn

Autumn is, by far, my favourite season. With the smoky aroma of bonfires filling the air and colourful leaves desperately clinging to the branches of their trees before admitting defeat and fluttering to the ground, it is a great time to reflect on the nearly-through year and look forward to - dare I say it - Christmas.

In recent years the ability to kick wellie-ladened feet through piles of crispy brown, orange and red leaves whilst hoping that no dog has left any surprises underneath has come all too early in the year with strong winds and copious amounts of rain. However, this year has been slightly different. Don't get me wrong, there has been wind and there has been rain, but there has also been a rather warm temperature. It's a shame that, without a spell of really cold temperatures the colours of the leaves fail to become really vivid, but flowers that would usually have given in to the Autumn long ago are still blooming.

My front garden was intended to be a fairly minimalist affair when I redesigned it earlier this year. It seems though, that Mother Nature had other ideas (or perhaps it was a passing sparrow) and seeded a Nasturtium plant for my pleasure. When I noticed it back in June, weaving its way from behind the Photinia, I gave careful consideration to ripping it's tender roots out of the ground before it got going - that wasn't part of my plan after all! Seeing that my plan was yet to start growing, I decided there would be no harm in leaving the little fellow to do his stuff and so he graced me with a lovely display of the brightest orange flowers throughout the Summer.

Strictly speaking, being a tender little annual, he should have rotted into a mush of black pulp by now but the lack of frosts and the sunny weather has meant that he is doing better than ever. Just one plant has crept all over my front garden and is now making its way across the steps leading to the front door and into the neighbours overgrown patch.

I've missed seeing the stunning displays of crimsons and golds upon the trees this Autumn but this Nasturtium has more than made up for it.

If you fancy giving Nasturtiums a go next year then the cheapest way to grow them is by seed. Although plants can be bought in early Spring, it will only take a couple of weeks for seeds to germinate and you needn't give them any attention at all. You don't even need to use a seed tray if you don't want to. Just sprinkle the seeds in situ and let them get on with it. And you can even use the flowers in salads as they're edible - just watch out for caterpillars as they can quite often take a fancy to Nasturtiums too!

It's Springtime!

Okay, it isn't Spring for at least another six months but I've been planning ahead - for once in my life - and planting Spring flowering bulbs.

My usual attitude in Autumn is to go into hibernation, cuddling up on the sofa with the radiators frantically trying to pump through enough hot water to satisfy my thermostat setting and X factor on repeat on the TV. When spring does finally arrive and I see lovely little snowdrops, narcissus, tulips, crocus, etc, etc, popping up in everyone else's gardens, I go into sulk mode because once again I'd taken the attitude of a certain Little Britain character and stated: "Don't want to" in the depths of Winter with the result being my garden is void of pretty Spring bulbs.

Well...

Not this year! I've dragged my butt off the sofa, gone to my local garden centre and trawled through the vast array of Spring bulbs on offer. Shunning the fancier, double petaled and frilly flower types, I went for a more simple variety of good, old-fashioned (some may say 'Boring') option of Crocus species in various shades of mauve's and white. I also decided it might be nice to have something a bit later flowering to look forward to (or forget about) and bought some Allium Schubertii. This is a fantastic bulb that flowers towards the end of May and is nearly half a metre tall. Being a member of the onion family it has the same type of stunning flower and also the same type of aroma as edible onions and so it should fit in wonderfully to the planting scheme in my front garden.

Have I ever told you about my front garden? There's a story for another day then.

The Allium bulbs came pre-packed with basic planting instructions, whilst the crocus bulbs worked out more cost effective to 'cram a bag' for a set price than to buy pre-packed bags. It is always wise to look around at the different options as the same bulbs can be packaged in several ways, each with a differing price. If you know what you're looking for then you can find the cheapest option and save yourself some money. Well, Christmas is looming after all!

Whatever bulbs you choose,whether they are loose or pre-packed, make sure you give them a squeeze to check they are firm before purchasing. If they are squishy the likelihood is that they have rotted and, no matter how green-fingered you are, you won't get them to grow.

Planting bulbs isn't a scary or traumatic experience, although it isn't really my favourite job in the garden as you have to wait months before you can see the results. What can I say? I'm an impatient gardener!

Rather than plonk my purchased bulbs on a shelf in the kitchen only to be forgotten about, I immediately armed myself with a trowel and dug trenches to the required planting depths as stated on the bags. Then it was simply a matter of placing my bulbs, roots down, into their trenches and re-covering with soil.

Good job done and now, once the X factor is over for another season, I will have my Spring flowering Bulbs to look forward to.