How was your summer?... after a hot June the summer never really got going, but at least we had plenty of rain for the garden. As usual when speaking to other gardeners, some things were successful, others less so…but such is a gardener’s lot, and we can’t beat nature who will always have the upper hand. Now is a great time to give your garden or outside space some TLC to get it through the winter and ensure a good start to 2024. We are pleased to present your Autumn newsletter from Streamside Horticultural Association which we hope will give you help and advice for the season ahead.
Focus on Wildlife – Birds…
Watching birds in your garden is a wonderful way to connect with nature. We can help them by planting berrying or fruit bushes and trees, feeding all year round, providing water for drinking and bathing, and putting up nesting boxes as well.
Approximately 30 species of bird are regular garden visitors, although more than 140 bird species have been recorded in British gardens. Some are seasonal visitors such as house martins in summer or redwings in winter. Others such as robins and blackbirds are resident year-round and can become very familiar faces in the garden or allotment. A good population of birds in the garden are part of a healthy garden, helping to keep caterpillars and aphids in check which can damage garden plants.
When and how to feed garden birds
Choosing feeders and providing water
Use wire mesh feeders for peanuts and seed feeders for other seed
Specially designed feeders are required for the small Niger seed, which is a favoured food of goldfinches
Food placed on wire mesh held just off the ground will entice ground-feeding birds such as robins and dunnocks
Place fat blocks in wire cages. Plastic nets around fat balls must be removed as birds, such as woodpeckers, can get caught up in the mesh. Create your own fat blocks by melting suet into moulds such as coconut shells or into holes drilled into logs
To help limit the spread of infections and diseases keep feeders clean, refill little and often (1-2 days’ worth of food) and, if possible, change their position in the garden to avoid fouling the ground underneath. Water is essential for bathing and drinking throughout the year. Provide water in a shallow container, preferably with sloping sides and no more than 5cm (2in) deep. During frosty weather, remove the ice so birds can continue to have access to water.
Preferred foods
Use different foods and recipes to entice a range of birds. Although fat is important, particularly in winter, also provide a grain mix or nuts to maintain a balanced diet. No-mess seed mixes are more expensive but the inclusion of de-husked sunflower hearts means there is less waste and debris under the feeder. Inferior mixes are often padded out with lentils and wheat.
Many birds have ‘favourite’ foods, so choosing certain types can affect what you see feeding in the garden. These are just some of the preferences:
Insect cakes for tits
Berry cakes for finches
Finely chopped animal fat and grated cheese are welcomed by small birds, such as wrens
Sparrows, finches, and nuthatches enjoy prising the seeds out of sunflower heads. Also, leave seed heads on herbaceous plants over winter
Niger seed is liked by goldfinches
Peanut cakes for starlings
Fruit is favoured by thrushes and blackbirds. Scatter over-ripe apples, raisins and song-bird mixes on the ground for them. Consider planting berrying shrubs and trees, including favourites such as Malus, Sorbus, Cotoneaster and Pyracantha
Mealworms are a favoured food of many garden birds
Streamside has a great and very cost-effective range of bird food as below :-
Fat Balls pack of 6 £1.10
Black Sunflower Seed 1kg £2.00
Niger Seed 1kg £2.00
Peanuts 1kg £2.00
Sunflower Hearts 1kg £2.50
Wild Bird Seed 1kg £1.00
Products in store…
Now is the time to start planning your garden for 2024, and we will have a large selection of bulbs for planting in the autumn on sale from Sunday 3rd September, to give your garden a great display next spring. Bulbs on sale will include narcissi, fritillaria, alliums, camassia, tulips, crocuses and many more...do come along to the store and see our selection. Planting now will ensure your garden has a boost of colour next Spring – and with a bit of planning you can ensure that there’s something beautiful to look at in your garden every month.
Autumn is also a good time to boost your soil by adding manure, compost or other fertilisers, this will give you a head start for next year’s planting in your garden or allotment. We have a wide range of soil improvers available – if you’re not sure what is best for your requirements, then just ask one of our team who will be pleased to help you.
Seasonal recipes using produce from your garden…
Orchard Crumble – serves 5- 6
Ingredients
400g apple, peeled, cored and cut into small pieces
400g stoned plum, cut into chunky wedges
2 tbsp sugar, any type
300g fig, woody stalks trimmed, quartered
300g blackberry or brambles, washed well
cream, custard or ice cream, to serve
For the topping
140g plain flour
140g wholemeal flour
175g butter, cut into small pieces
100g soft brown sugar
Method
STEP 1 First make the topping. Put the flours in a bowl with a pinch of salt, then rub in the butter with your fingertips to form crumbs. Stir in the sugar with a fork, and chill until needed.
STEP 2 Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Tip the apples, plums and sugar into a big saucepan with 50ml water and cook, stirring, for about 5 mins, until the apples are soft and juicy. Stir in the figs and blackberries, and tip into a baking dish. Scatter over the crumble and bake for 45-55 mins until the topping is golden and the fruit is bubbling.
Courgette and Lemon Risotto – serves 2
Ingredients
50g butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, crushed
180g risotto rice
1 vegetable stock cube
zest and juice 1 lemon
2 lemon thyme sprigs
250g courgette, diced
50g vegetarian Italian-style hard cheese
2 tbsp crème fraîche
Method
STEP 1 Melt the butter in a deep -frying pan. Add the onion and fry gently until softened for about 8 mins, then add the garlic and stir for 1 min. Stir in the rice to coat it in the buttery onions and garlic for 1-2 mins.
STEP 2 Dissolve the stock cube in 1 litre of boiling water, then add a ladle of the stock to the rice, along with the lemon juice and thyme. Bubble over a medium heat, stirring constantly. When almost all the liquid has been absorbed, add another ladle of stock and keep stirring. Tip in the courgette and keep adding the stock, stirring every now and then until the rice is just tender and creamy.
STEP 3 To serve, stir in some seasoning, the lemon zest, vegetarian Italian-style hard cheese and crème fraîche.
Some things to do in your garden this Autumn……
The following lists are just some of the seasonal tasks that you may like to consider to ensure that your garden or allotment continues to look good, and produce a good level of crops :-
September
Fruit and Veg
Let the skin of marrows and squash ripen and harden in the sun before harvesting for storage.
Plant hardy varieties of onion sets and shallots.
Sow green manure crops to cover any bare soil.
Cut back fruited canes of autumn raspberries to ground level.
Plant spring cabbages and cover straight away with netting to deter hungry pigeons.
Leave a few plants of salad crops such as rocket and watercress to flower and set seed, which will provide free seed for next year.
Any flowers that form on outdoor tomatoes are unlikely to turn into ripe fruits, so remove the top of each plant so that it puts its energy into producing ripe fruit rather than unwanted leaves and flowers.
Flowers
Plant spring bedding such as wallflowers and forget me nots.
Take softwood lavender cuttings.
Remove old bedding plants if they’ve finished flowering.
Lift and store gladioli bulbs.
Plant aconites, fritillaries, and crocus in lawns.
Sow hardy annuals such as calendula and godetia for early summer flowers.
Prune rambling roses, taking out old stems and tying in new ones.
Bring tender perennials inside.
Keep camellia plants well-watered, otherwise their flowering performance next spring may be stunted.
Lift and divide congested clumps of perennials, including phlox, campanula and hemerocallis.
Take salvia cuttings as an insurance against a hard winter.
Keep deadheading roses, penstemons and dahlias to extend their display.
Miscellaneous
Take down greenhouse shading or netting to make things brighter.
Dry off mesh and fleece used after harvesting your carrots.
Start preparing soil for hedging in advance of bare-root plants becoming available in winter.
October
Fruit and Veg
Pick apples frequently before they become damaged.
Harvest and store pumpkins.
Sow hardy broad beans and peas under cloches.
Cut asparagus foliage at soil level then mulch.
Sow green manures over bare soil for enrichment.
Cover endives in order to blanch their leaves.
Wrap bands around fruit tree stems to catch winter moths.
Chop Jerusalem artichokes down and harvest roots.
Plant lettuces in a cool greenhouse for daily salads this winter.
Remove dead leaves from strawberry plants.
Clear summer crops and dig or manure.
Save runner bean seeds and store in a paper bag until next spring.
Flowers
Collect fallen leaves to make leaf mould compost.
Lift and store gladioli corms
Prune roses that aren’t carrying displays of hips.
Cut back plants hanging over paths and fences.
Life and divide congested clumps of perennials.
Take hardwood cuttings from many trees and shrubs.
Remove diseased foliage from roses and burn it.
Plant lily bulbs in pots.
Empty spent hanging baskets.
Check pansies for greenfly attack.
Remove fallen leaves smothering bedding displays.
Miscellaneous
Collect fallen leaves to make leaf mould from.
Scrub clean all the dirty pots and seed trays that have accumulated during the year with soapy water to kill fungal spores.
Empty and clean water butts, before putting them back in place ready to collect rainwater over the winter.
November
Fruit and veg
Stop feeding citrus plants and only water them sparingly.
Check newly planted garlic and put back any that have dug out by birds.
Start winter pruning grape vines after leaf fall.
Harvest kale leaves regularly starting with the outer leaves, taking a few leaves form each plant.
Plant fruit bushes now to give them time to root before spring.
Clear old crops now adding them to the compost heap.
Check stored fruit and veg, removing any that are rotting.
Pick late-ripening apples and pears.
Tidy strawberry rows, removing old runners and weeds.
Stake tall Brussels sprout plants.
Start digging parsnips once we’ve had some frost as they get sweeter.
Flowers
Check sweet-pea seedlings are not being nibbled by mice.
Protect seedlings of hardy annuals sown earlier in the autumn with fleece during any cold spells.
Continue planting spring bulbs for naturalising in your lawn.
Tie in loose stems of climbers and wall shrubs that could suffer from winter winds.
Order bare-rooted roses for planting during the winter.
Plant tulip bulbs now.
Propagate echinops and verbascums by taking root cuttings.
Protect Japanese maples by moving into a greenhouse or porch.
Clear top growth of annual climbers.
Move wrongly positioned shrubs.
Plant bulbs in empty pots.
Bring in succulents to protect over the winter.
Bring forced bulbs into the light if they are beginning to shoot.
Miscellaneous
Treat decking and timber structures with preservative.
Protect outside taps and hoses over winter to prevent damage from freezing weather.
The next Newsletter will be Winter 2023 and will be available at the end of November/ beginning of December 2023.
Don’t forget we will be closing for our Winter break at the end of October so stock up on all your gardening requirements before then.
We will re-open for business the first Sunday in February 2024.