Planting Seedlings and Bulbs in Your Garden in Autumn

Autumn Planting for Food

If you have a vegetable garden it's time to sow seeds for a winter crop. If your garden gets light frost, sow lettuces, cabbage, spinach and kohlrabi. For gardens that get heavy frost, sow broad beans, or try onions and radish.

Also look out for the range of oriental vegetable seedlings in garden centres. They are best planted in autumn and harvested through winter and spring. With names such as mizuma, tatsoi and komatsuna, these Chinese and Japanese salad vegetables hail from areas where the summers are fairly cool.

Plant in Autumn for Winter Colour

Winter and spring flowering bedding plants can be prepared directly into garden beds. Dig in a sprinkling (60g./a handful) of superphosphate granules per square metre, and then spread a thick layer of compost across the soil.

For a sunny garden choose Pansies, Petunias, Snapdragons, Poppies, Calendulas, Stocks or Sweetpea. For a shady garden try Cineraria (for frost-free corners) or the frost-hardy white or mauve Fairy Primrose (Primula malacoides).

Plant out winter and spring-flowering bulbs in early autumn. Try exotics such as Daffodil, Ixia, Leucojum, Sparaxis, Freesia and Dutch Iris. Also look out for bulbs native to winter rainfall areas which includes the old favourites such as Freesia, Sparaxis, Tritonia, Babiana and Lachenalia. Among the new range of dry bulbs are new varieties of the colourful Wand flower (Ixia species), Ornithogalum 'Namib Sunrise', Watsonia, and Cyrtanthus 'Sunshine'. Also look out for potted Bush Lily (Velheimia bracteata), Wild Tulip (Homeria elegans) or Wild Gladiolus (Gladiolus tristis)

Plant tulips and lilium bulbs in late autumn. In dry areas bulbs will need to be watered regularly throughout the winter.

Lawns and Perennials

One of the best ways to increase the number of plants in your garden is to split up established perennials. Autumn is a good time to divide a number of herbaceous perennials including Michaelmas and Shasta daisies, Phlox, Salvia, Golden Rod (Solidago), Iris, Pelargonium, Penstemon and Blanket Flowers (Gaillardia).

Water the clumps a day before lifting and do the dividing in the shade. If you can't replant on the same day, cover the plants with wet sacking. New healthy plants on the edge of the main plant are best for dividing. Cut the dead heads and seed pods off summer-flowering Cannas. This might give the third flower bud a chance to bloom before the first frosts.

Autumn is also the time to plant an evergreen shade lawn. Shade lawns are best planted by seed and are ideal for small townhouse gardens that are surrounded by large walls or are shaded most of the day by large trees. Remember that the leaf blades of a shade lawn should never be cut to less than 7cm. in length. Although shade lawns need water regularly throughout the winter, beware of over watering as a wet lawn at night will encourage fungal disease.

Scale on Aloes

If you live in an aloe growing area, watch out for white scale on aloes that are busy making their flower spikes for winter. The traditional method of dealing with white scale is to mix a solution of 50% methylated spirits and 50% soapy water and paint this onto the aloe. A more effective method is to spray the aloe with lime sulphur or Malathion.