Seedheads

Unfortunately, the day dawned damp and didn’t improve, with persistent greyness and rain. My will to go outside faded with the light.

However, I did visit a local nursery to buy scarlet cyclamen for the pots on the kitchen windowsill. The pelargoniums that had flourished during the summer needed removing and the smart new row of fresh marbled leaves and bright flowers of the cyclamen have cheered us up no end.

And the job could be done indoors – although I am a hardened gardener, the day did not tempt me outside.

No doubt the weather will improve and when it does there is plenty to do in the borders.

As has been mentioned, flower beds can be cleared, with dead stems of herbaceous perennials cut to the ground and put on the compost heap or bagged up to take to the municipal tip.

This task isn’t a rule for all plants. Penstemons, for example, are best left until spring before pruning. The older stems will provide protection from frost for any new shoots that emerge.

The plant can then be cut back to new growth as near to the ground in March or April, which keeps growth fresh and stops it getting woody.

Plants with interesting seedheads can also be left for a while, as they will provide a focal point for a few more weeks.

In our garden, the Aster macrophylla has produced a lovely display of fluffy seedheads in the semi-shade under a holly tree this year.

This useful member of the michaelmas daisy family will grow in dry or semi-shade under trees and shrubs. Stems carrying large heart-shaped leaves push through the soil in late winter or early spring, and quickly grow to around a metre or so to provide ground cover that will last many months.

Large trusses of lilac daisies appear in the summer, not as large or bright as some michaelmas daisies, but still charming. By October, the last of the flowers have faded and the leaves are beginning to turn yellow and drop. Eventually, only the pale brown and cream seedheads will remain. With luck, these will remain intact until Christmas.

The small vegetable bed I started in the garden this year also needs clearing. It has had its ups and downs. The courgette plant was a runaway success, revelling in the wet summer and producing plenty for us to eat.

What is probably the last courgette of the year was picked last week and even though there are still a couple of flowers opening, the mildewed plant looks past its productive life.

The red cabbage is also looking good and although caterpillars have shredded the outer leaves, the head is firm and healthy.

Rocket was also successful. We had a good crop from late May to mid July, after which it ran to seed. I tried to encourage new grow by cutting everything back to just above the ground, but the new leaves were scant.

The plants were pulled up, by when there was a reasonably good amount of chard to collect.

Radish and beetroot were much less successful as they were swamped by the rampant courgette. I will grow it again next year, but will train the new plant firmly away from the rest of the stock.