Tidying The Garden:

As the nights draw in and the last displays of summer flowers are starting to fade, it is a natural time to start the essential Autumn garden tidy. :

• Tidy up borders by clearing weeds and removing old flower stems where there’s no Winter seed head interest. No need for a total clear-out here, as your garden wildlife will appreciate some cover over the Winter months.
• Clear piles of dead leaves from the lawn to stop the lawn turning yellow.

• This really is the best time of year to start composting. There’s the most rubbish in the garden from leaves, old flower stems, lawn & pond debris to old bedding plants.
• Compost all your green rubbish created when tidying the garden. Also don’t forget to compost your daily vegetative food rubbish. Saves filling black bin liners for the local skip!
• Things to avoid putting in the compost heap: diseased plant matter, old seed heads, woody matter and perennial roots (unless of course they’ve been shredded).
• Ideally use a compost starter such as the organic "Activ 8" to help nature’s process on its way.
• Compost normally takes 3-6 months to mature so ideally you want 2-3 composters in various states of decomposition for use round the year.
• If you just want to get started with limited space we particularly recommend Duponts foldaway composter, which magically decomposes compost matter 4 times quicker than conventional methods.
• Always place on soil so manure worms can help the decomposing process.
• Don’t forget to put the lid on!! Or at least cover it where there is no lid. You need to keep the moisture in.
• When your bin is full it helps to cap it with about 5cm of soil. This will help to keep the moisture in.

Clear out the Pond:

• Now’s a great time to get in the pond and cut down the leaves of marginal pond plants (again great for your new composter!), remove floating water plants & scoop out excess sludge from the bottom.
• Of course you can get in and do it the hard way, or you can make life easier on yourself with our Pondomatic’s great value pond vacuum.