Gardening with Pat Duke: Often overlooked but don't forget this spring-flowering trio

Earlier in the week I found myself conducting an informal inventory of plants that are still in flower.

Asters, chrysanthemums, tithonia, fuchsia and sedums are all still going strong.

The more intrepid bees are sluggishly collecting what they can before finding a cosy crack in a stone wall to overwinter.

About now many people think about ‘putting the garden to bed’ which means pruning shrubs and roses that don’t produce hips.

Clearing the beds and cutting the lawn after giving it a rake and the addition of sharp sand is another autumn job.

Once your back has recovered from propelling the rake for half a day, you can think about planting autumn-sown sweet peas or spring-flowering bulbs for an invigorating start to the next gardening year.

Not only this, they are something to look forward to and chart the progress of while ticking off the weeks till spring.

Often overlooked spring flowers are polyanthus, forget-me-nots and wallflowers. They will provide colour from very early spring to summer when you can pull them out and replace them with summer bedding plants.

Wallflowers come in taller and dwarf varieties so make sure you put them where you can see them. Even in winter they give you some pretty green shades when planted in a group.

They can be planted from seed in May to flower the next spring but many garden centres now stock them in different colours from deep red to bright yellow. ‘Fire King’ and ‘Sugar Rush’ look great together alongside any of the more common yellow shades.

They are really not too bothered about being looked after either which makes them the gardener's friend. They don’t even mind a touch of shade and will brighten up a forgotten corner or maybe the front of a north-facing house.

Keep adding a mulch to the beds where you can beg, borrow or steal compost or other nutrient rich substrate.

I've been mulching shrubs with grass cuttings whilst the lawn is still growing.

On the plot

The borlotti beans have finally given up their pods which means the canes will need dismantling and putting away.

I store them in an ingenious device of just a drainpipe counter sunk into the ground. Canes can be wedged in there, rather than regularly collapsing when placed up against a wall.

Some tidying up at this time of year can always save injury or inconvenience. No one wants the plot to look like a Marx Brothers' film, so store away the rake and hose pipes safely.

Sow broad beans (Aquadulce or De Monica) now, ready to plant outside in early spring.

I know it might seem early but succession sowing is my thinking here.

They are famously hardy but a frozen spell of over a week or so will kill them off so its probably best to keep them in whatever type of plant cover you have. A cold frame, greenhouse or lean to will be great.

I used to have a shower screen against a wall for this very purpose which was highly effective.

Now the soil is softer, on top at least, you can go round any edges with a hoe or straight-edged spade making them sharper and stopping grass from spreading from any paths onto the beds.

Check on the newly sown garlic and onions as blackbirds love to hop around pulling them out like some kind of annoying avian bingo.

Thinking about the wildlife that will also be noticing the drop in temperatures, you could strategically place a hedgehog house under a large shrub or small tree.

They are easy to make and your local hogs will no doubt make use of them if they are stuffed with leaves and straw.

Butterfly boxes will help the sleepy meandering red admirals keep warm and dry over winter too.