Autumn can be such a grey, depressing time so some good colour at this time of year is well worth investing in. One of the best plants to deliver colour here now at Charnwood is Euonymus alatus, a member of the spindle family.  One of its other names is ‘Burning Bush’, unsurprising as the leaves this month turn the most vivid red, and it is one of those easy to grow small trees or large-ish shrubs. It has grown quite slowly here and it is not spectacular over the summer months but now it comes into its prime.

For vivid colour in Spring nothing much beats tulips.  They need really good drainage so growing them in pots is a good solution as our soil is pretty heavy here:  adding a generous amount of horticultural grit to the compost is wise.  The biggest problem we find is squirrels who love to munch them.  I swear they gather the bulb catalogues together in their dreys to check which are the most expensive on their menu to devour them first. So if you have squirrels beware! I’ve often suggested soaking them in tonic water containing quinine for an hour before planting to deter them: it works to some extent and planting them good and deep, at least 3 times the depth of the bulb, can also prevent this kind of tulip disaster.  You can plant tulips right up to the end of the year and I’ve found some in the back of the shed before now and put them in the ground in January and they didn’t seem to mind at all.  You can get some good bargains later in the year too, but check to make sure they are all good and plump.  They can get a bit dried out if not stored properly.

Now the leaves are falling it’s time to collect them up and make leafmould. All you need to do is gather them up, put them in an open sided cage or into a bin bag with  a few holes in the bottom for drainage and leave them to rot away.  As long as they stay damp they will slowly turn into beautiful black crumbly compost that is the best soil conditioner you can get:  and it’s free! As with many things in the garden, patience is needed. It takes at least a year to work but your plants will love you for it.  I will be adding some of past years to my pots of tulips along with the grit as it also helps to keep the drainage good.  

The front of our garden often gets flooded over the winter months and one plant that doesn’t seem to mind having its toes in water for several days at a time is the rose. So I’ve just invested in some bare root roses from David Austin, this time a lovely single yellow one called ‘Tottering by Gently’. Buying them bare root is cheaper and, in my experience, better for the plant than getting them in a container when in flower. So I’ll be planting them any time now and getting them off to a good start.

At October’s Tollerton Gardening Club meeting, Peter and I were very kindly invited to go along and talk about the development of our garden at ‘Charnwood’ since 1987 when we first arrived here.  It was great fun putting a presentation together from the thousands of photos of our garden over the years. What a lovely evening we had with some new and some lovely old friends.  

Their long serving Chairman Kevin told us that the Club has now been running for 20 years, how good is that?  All those years ago, we got the word out and  I added a few words in this gardening column asking anyone who would be interested in joining a new club of this kind to come along to the Air Hostess.  The response was great and the club has gone from strength to strength. Many thanks and congratulations to all those people who have kept the club running for so long, you are a generous and kind group of people that gave the two of us such a warm welcome and they will do that for anyone who walks through the door at any of their meetings. 

Christmas next: where does the time go?!