Gardening: Make most of that lingering autumn sunshine while you can

In the Garden
Although we’ve had extremes of weather recently, there is always a sunny spell within that to attach more relevance to. The clocks go back in two weeks, Sunday Oct 29, so there is still opportunity to make the most of sunny evenings.
Before October ends and the street lamps are lit at 4,30pm all the flower beds will need to be cut down and dead matter removed to the compost heap. Even more exciting is that the more woody cuttings like roses and tougher shrubs can be burned in a fire where local rules allow. The potash can then be used as mulch or fertiliser for other plants.
Hopefully by now any perennials you’ve put in will have acclimatised which means you can get back in there and separate any larger herbaceous plants. Not only do these monsters take up space and drown smaller flowers, they drain the soil of moisture and nutrients so the bed becomes imbalanced and the bullies take over.
Rudbeckia for instance can grow to the size of a small tree if left and these can be separated when they cover everything and replaced or given to a neighbour or fellow gardener. Achillea and penstemon are two other candidates that separating works well for. Doing this re-invigorates them for a better show of colour next season.
Bring in any tender plants that may not survive winter. Fortunately where we live we don’t always have to lift dahlias, saliva and penstemons. As we’ve had the first frost already it might be time to get the fleece out and cover exotics like younger banana plants and tree ferns. These can be expensive to replace so its worth spending the half an hour or so it takes to trim them and cover them with fleece or straw. Make a chicken wire tube fitted loosely around the tree fern and stuff it tightly with straw. While you’re down there you can pretend you're on the rain forest floor as the ferns seem to trap whatever warmth is around.
On the Plot
Clearing the leaves can be a tedious pursuit at this time of year so making leaf mould eases the pain. If you don’t want to collect it in punctured black bin bags then its easy to make a simple wire structure wrapped around posts. Fill this with leaves and water it down to compact it and you ll have something to add to the beds this time next year. If you do it now then every year the leaf issue takes care of itself.
Lemongrass can be placed in a larger pot and brought indoors but make sure you consult those with an interest in tidiness or a cold night in the shed might be in the offing.
Garlic can be planted now to give it plenty of time to set root for when the cold and wet weather it loves arrives. Climate change is dictating what we grow to an extent but garlic will always be a winter staple. Whilst you can plant shop bought garlic, it’s worth doing a trial of Thermidrome or Messidrome. Elephant garlic is worth starting and is a treat when roasted next summer and its horticultural needs are just the same as its smaller cousins.
Keep weeding and disrupting stubborn weeds with the hoe. They will soon disappear in this damp weather and not return as quickly.
Walk round with a bag of home made compost and top up and fruit bushes in pots but remember blueberries are ericaceous so need a more acidic mulch.
We have quickly marched into autumn and soon that will be over so make the most of the lingering low sunshine and lighter mornings by getting outside and soaking up vitamin D and natural warmth while pottering in the garden here and there.