• The spring flowering bulbs we have been lifting from the garden are resolutely dormant but the pots in the nursery are already showing fresh white roots. This is because the nursery is under irrigation and it is the advent of autumn rains which triggers most spring bulbs into growth. The message is clear – don’t delay on lifting garden bulbs that you plan to divide. The early March rains are likely to send them into growth and you will damage the young roots if you leave it too long. This includes bluebells (do these first) and daffodils.
• The rain bucketing down here today has been greeted by Mark’s usual response: “Good news. There will be no drought this year.” But when the fine weather returns, keep up daily watering on container plants and don’t be forgetting to top up the goldfish pond if you have one. Fish get stressed when the water is too warm.
• In the height of summer, lettuce, rocket and mesclun tend to bolt to seed before maturity. With cooler weather just around the corner, it is safe to return to planting these crops with a reasonable expectation of a harvest.
• It is time to be getting in the late autumn and winter crops. Leeks are the most urgent crop to get in. Root crops such as carrots, parsnips and swedes if you fancy them can still be sown from seed now. The brassica family and Florence fennel will give the winter greens and can all be planted. Some people recommend getting broad beans in this early though it is usual to leave them until April. Dwarf beans can still be planted.
• While seeds are considerably cheaper than plants to buy, you can be even more economical and save seed of many crops. Clean the seed as you harvest it and store it in recycled envelopes with the date and variety written on the outside. Make sure the seeds are kept dry and, above all, away from anywhere the little autumn mice can locate them. Mark is using an old fridge (switched off) for this purpose. Any plants which are labelled F1 hybrids will not come true from seed but most crops can be grown from home harvested seed. The original seed packet will tell you if it is an F1 hybrid.
• Those of us who raise our eyebrows at the hyperbole of some people’s garden descriptions may enjoy Edward Augustus Bowles who wrote in 1914: “How magnificent it sounds! That is the fun of writing of one’s garden: a steep bank can be a cliff, a puddle a pool, a pool a lake, bog and moraine sound as though a guide were needed to find your way across them, and yet may be covered by a sheet of the Times. My Dolomites lie within the compass of my outstretched arms.” Mark has always been of the view that by definition a lake is a body of water sufficiently large upon which to water ski. Anything smaller is a pond.