OUTDOOR LIVING: Tips and tricks for autumn gardening

The gardening year is now starting to wind down, and plants are beginning to reward us with the jewel-like colours of their autumn leaves. But that doesn’t mean an end to the gardening – there’s still plenty of fun to be had tending to your garden, and jobs completed now will help ensure your plants wake up healthy and strong in spring.

Keep your garden chirpy!
As the weather starts to get a little colder, why not make your garden a haven for birds? Adding bird tables and feeders and a bird box can help attract many different feathered friends to your outdoor space. Bird boxes are available from Patsy in Westport Country Market, which you’ll find in the St Anne’s Boxing Club, James Street Car Park, every Thursday morning between 8.30 and 1pm.
Don’t forget to stock up on bird food. Choosing different foods helps to attract different birds, or consider growing your own natural food supplies too – birds enjoy berries and natural seed heads.
If you have the space, make a woodpile habitat in a shady corner of the garden. A log pile will attract insects, including beetles, as well as toads and maybe a hedgehog too.

Sow some seeds
Broad beans and peas can be slipped into the earth in October, ready for a spring haul. And November is a good time to get onion and shallot sets into the ground. Leafy greens, such as rocket, pea shoots, pak choi and cress, will thrive on a sunny windowsill or in a greenhouse, so you can enjoy fresh salads through the darkest months.
October is the time for sowing early carrot seeds. Early carrots can be more tender than maincrop carrots, so it’s worth planting some this month to enjoy next spring. As with all carrots, early carrots prefer loose, deep and sandy soil. If the soil is too heavy or compacted, your carrots won’t grow as well and could be stunted. Early carrots should not be sown before October 15 – obviously planting in a tunnel is better, but they can be planted outside.

Tidy and mulch
General garden jobs include tidying borders lightly, clearing weeds and cutting down spent flower stems. Flower heads can be left for the birds if you prefer. You can compost all green rubbish generated by clearing the garden. Don’t put woody material on the compost heap unless they are put through a garden shredder, and never put the roots of perennial weeds into your compost bin.
A few piles of leaves in out-of-the-way places - under hedges, for example - can provide shelter for overwintering wildlife. But remove leaves from your lawn, paths (which can be slippery) and borders. You can use them to make leaf mould, which is a great soil improver.
Trees, shrubs and climbers need some attention also. Plant container-grown trees, shrubs, climbers and roses. Check tree ties in windy weather. Cut back tall shrubs if necessary and prune late-flowering climbing roses and repeat-flowering old-fashioned roses.
This is the perfect time of year for mulching where there is still some warmth in the soil and plenty of moisture, which you can trap beneath a cosy blanket of mulch. Mulching is used to retain moisture, reduce weed growth and promote healthy soil.
You can use wood chips, grass cuttings and fallen leaves – dead, organic plant material that provides precious nutrients to the soil as it decays. Add a layer of mulch around your trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials.

Plant spring bulbs
When we think of autumn gardening, bulbs always spring to mind. Planting spring and summer-flowering bulbs will ensure that your garden is a riot of colour next season. All you need to do is get bulbs into the ground ahead of winter, then sit back and wait patiently for a floral extravaganza.
For brilliant displays of cheerful daffodils that come back year after year, choose the fattest bulbs and make sure they’re firm, with no signs of decay. Bulbs thrive in moisture-retentive, well-drained soil, ideally in a sunny position. Daffodils prefer to be planted early in autumn, so get bulbs into the ground without delay.
October is also the last chance to get spring-flowering crocus bulbs into the ground, along with alliums, many of which begin to bloom in May. Bulbs of summer-flowering favourites, such as crocosmia and lilies, can also go into the ground in October.
If you’re pressed for time, winter aconites, hyacinths and snowdrops can still be planted in November.
I hope all the readers of The Mayo News have enjoyed my contribution to this gardening section, as this is my last piece I am signing off… I wish you all happy gardening.

Chris Smith has been running Western Herbs & Veg for more than 30 years, producing organic herbs and vegetables for sale at Westport Country Market. He is a member of Mayo’s Clew Bay Garden Trail, a chain of beautiful and unique private gardens that open to the public during summer to raise funds for charity (see www.clewbaygardentrail.ie for more). Each month, an article by a trail member will appear in these pages.