Gardening jobs for the weekend | Brian Kidd
It’s time to service the mower and start your winter digging.
• This is an excellent time to book the mower in for a service. If done now it will be back in three weeks. If left until spring, everyone else has beaten you to it and that grass keeps growing while you wait.
• Thin autumn-sown carrots. Earth soil up over the bases to prevent the tops turning green. Keep the crop covered over with insect barrier mesh as carrot root fly is around again.
• Sow autumn-sown varieties of broad beans. It is essential the right ones are sown. Aqua Dulce types are suitable. Sow single seeds in insert cells for best results and plant out when seedlings are 2in high.
• Take old leaves off rhubarb now. Use these between a layer of mowings on the compost heap. They’ll help break everything down at this time of year.
• How are you progressing with the winter digging? Just a thought...
• Shall we leave fallen leaves on the lawn or pick them up? If you love your lawn you will pick them up regularly.
• If you usually put leaves in a wire mesh cage, line the inside with old compost bags making sure the black inside of the bags is facing the garden – it looks smarter. This lining of polythene keeps the leaves moist and speeds decomposition.
• Make sure anything which is going on to the bonfire is kept dry to reduce the amount of smoke. And PLEASE make sure there are no hedgehogs underneath the bonfire.