Check out our late Autumn gardening tips and advice...
Plant your Spring bulbs
Before the frost hits get your Spring blooming bulbs planted out. Plants such as daffodils, crocus, tulips, bluebells and hyacinths do well if planted between October and December. Use our Bordermix Topsoil or replenish your existing soil with our Multi Purpose Compost.
How low can you go...?!
It's your last chance for lawn care
Option 1 - TopdressOur Topdressing is a 70/30% blend of screened silica sand and topsoil, screened down to about 3mm, making it perfect for working in-between existing grass blades and down to the roots. This is especially useful technique to use on sparse lawns.
- You Dandy's Hardwearing Grass Seed to over-seed bare patches and for general lawn feeding brush the topdressing over your grass at a depth of 1-2mm. We find a garden brush is perfect for this. Make sure you have raked the lawn first to break up the surface and remove any moss, leaves and weeds.
- Sow the seed at a rate of around 10 - 15 gms per m2 and lightly rake into the surface - this also helps to avoid birds and rodents eating your seed! If birds are a problem you may wish to add a net over your lawn until the seed germinates.
- Give the seed a good water with a sprinkler if we've not had rainfall.
For areas where the grass is completely bare you will add a fresh topsoil and either seed or lay turf. Here at Dandy's we sell our Lawnmix Topsoil in small bags, making it perfect for jobs like this.
When patch repairing ensure you rake or fork into the existing soil to remove any hard surface or weeds. Add a thin layer of fresh topsoil and rake into the surrounding lawn so that it knits in tightly.
If cutting turf for this patch don't forget the turf could be 25 - 50mm thick so you may need to dig into the area first!
Sow your seed and rake through into the surrounding before giving it a good sprinkling of water.
Look out for hedgehogs
Don't forget to look out for Hedgehogs in your garden this November. If you've built yourself a bonfire this will be the perfect place for a hedgehog to live so please be sure to check it before lighting!
Often raking up leaves can unearth a hoggie home so make them a quiet, undisturbed home in a corner of your garden using a pile of leaves or some of our Landscaping Bark and a wooden box.
Leave out some water in a shallow dish with stones in, they also love meat based cat or dog food too if you have some spare.
Tidy up and make a compost pile
Raking fallen leaves and twigs is easier and cleaner in the long run if you do it straight away. Make your own compost pile with leaves, dead plants, old veg roots and soil- our empty bulk bags are amazing for creating your own mobile compost pile.
To quickly compost leaves start with a layer 6 to 8 inches thick of leaves, an inch of soil and an inch of manure/mushroom compost. You can also add some nitrogen fertiliser. Mix up the layers every two weeks and keep the pile moderately moist.
Grow Your Own - garlic and winter onions
Planting garlic is simple and easy. Pop garlic cloves directly into a rich, well draining soil such as our VegeGrow Topsoil, in a sunny location. Set cloves root side down around 4-6" apart in rows about 2' apart, and cover with a couple of inches of topsoil.
Plant your winter onions in the same sort of manner - about 1- 2"deep. Gently push the set into the ground until it is just below soil level. Cover it with additional soil if necessary, gently packing the soil over the bulb.
Space sets 4 -6" inches apart within each row. Each row should also be spaced about 12" apart.
Don't forget to add a thick layer of mulch for winter protection. We suggest our Landscaping Garden Bark Mulch, Horse and Chicken Manure or Composted bark Mulch Fines.