Easy October Garden Tips You Need to Try

Easy October Garden Tips You Need to Try: Welcome to Episode 4 of Step by Step Gardening with David Domoney, your practical series for seasonal tasks, plant know-how and design inspiration. Filmed at the beautiful Bridgemere Show Gardens, this episode focuses on planting for spring bulb displays, October lawn routines, a standout crab apple for structure and wildlife, plus a calming tour of the Japanese Garden.
🍁 Autumn lawn care – step by step
Keep turf tidy and resilient before winter. Learn accurate mowing heights, rake leaves and thatch, spike or hollow-tine compacted areas, brush in a light top-dressing, repair bare patches, and apply an autumn feed higher in potash and phosphorus to strengthen roots.
🗓️ Gardening jobs of the month
Find out which bedding to plant for early spring impact, how to refresh containers for winter colour, which hardy veg to establish while the soil stays warm, and when to set alliums for dependable harvests. Includes an onion set’s progress update.
Plants mentioned: Primrose, polyanthus, Bellis, Myosotis (forget-me-not), Erysimum (wallflower); Violas, pansies, cyclamen; Spinach, kale, chard, spring cabbage, winter lettuce, mizuna, mustard; Autumn onion sets, shallots, garlic.
🌷 Bulb Masterclass: Spring colour made simple
Learn how to plant and layer bulbs for continuous blooms from late winter to late spring. Get clear guidance on spacing, depth, drainage with grit, pot “lasagne” planting, and which bulbs reliably return.
Plants mentioned: Tulipa (tulips), Narcissus (daffodils), Crocus, Galanthus (snowdrops), Hyacinthus (hyacinths), Muscari (grape hyacinths), Allium.
⛩️ Garden Highlight: The Japanese Garden
Explore a restful space where stone, water and foliage create year-round calm. Learn how structure, texture, movement and scent keep impact through autumn and winter.
Plants mentioned: Acer palmatum (Japanese maple), bamboo, Cryptomeria (Japanese cedar), Trachelospermum jasminoides (star jasmine).
🍎 Tree of the Month: Malus (crab apple)
Discover a compact tree delivering blossom for pollinators, strong summer form, fiery autumn foliage and long-lasting fruit for birds, and can also pollinate dessert apples. Get tips on siting, soil, and shaping for small and medium gardens.
Plants mentioned (varieties): Malus toringo ‘Aros’, Malus ‘Golden Hornet’, Malus ‘Butterball’, Malus ‘Sun Rival’. 

Location: Bridgemere Show Gardens – a must-visit UK destination for plant lovers.
Learn more:
https://www.bridgemereshowgardens.co.uk/
What3Words: ///marine.cheat.waltzes
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About David Domoney
C Hort. FCI Hort. F Wcg. F Cmc.
Fellow of the Warwickshire College Group
Fellow of the London Colleges of Horticulture
Recipient of The Prince Edward Award for Excellence in Horticulture
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00:00 Introduction
00:31 October Task – Colour Planting
01:08 Autumn Lawncare
02:07 Cutting the Lawn
05:34 Removing Leaves & Thatch
10:24 Edging the Lawn
11:25 Aerating the Lawn
13:11 Feeding Lawns
15:00 Weeding Lawns
17:09 October Task – Vegetable Planting
18:02 Bulbs
19:14 What is a Geophyte
19:49 What does the inside of a flower bulb look like
22:28 Allium Bulbs
22:56 Hyacinth Bulbs
23:45 Daffodil Bulbs
23:56 The Greek myth of Narcissus
25:02 Muscari bulbs
25:33 Crocus Bulbs
25:44 Snowdrop Bulbs
27:00 How long do flower bulbs last?
27:55 Which bulbs are an investment the garden?
29:29 Why not grow tulips and daffodils from seed?
31:31 Planting bulbs in borders & lawns
37:36 Planting bulbs in containers
42:19 The Japanese Garden
46:16 October Task – Onion Harvesting
48:51 Tree of the month – Crab Apple
51:27 Crab Apple varieties
53:35 Credits

Welcome to episode four of Stepbystep Gardening with me, David Domin. This month it’s all about October. In this episode, I will cover all you need to know to be successful with spring flowering bulbs. Autumn lawn care is also important and I’ll be covering that and beautiful crab apples and many more. October is one of those great flowering changeover months, the end of summer, things like patunias and fuchsia and geraniums and the like. But color doesn’t end there. There’s a whole host of new color that comes in. things like lovely crosanthemums or cichlmen or winter flowering pansies or viola. Autumn is the time to plant in the garden and that will keep flowers in your pots and containers right the way up to Christmas and beyond. This summer it’s been hot and our lawns have suffered. Yet they’ve come back green. But there are some steps to take in October to make sure you bring them back to their full health. [Music] There are many plants that play a key part in the garden. Some people it’s the roses, others it’s apples or peies or Japanese maples or magnolia. But for me, one of the most underestimated plants in the garden is the humble blades of grass that form the lawn in the garden. Now, the lawn itself to some people is a phenomenal hobby to maintain and manicure. The lawn in your garden is incredibly important, and October is a great month to do some feeding and some repair to put it in tip-top condition, ready to overwinter and look great next spring. Let’s start with mowing. [Music] First of all, cutting the lawn. This was my first job in horiculture. My dad allowed me to use the lawn mower in the back garden going up and down cutting the stripes. And then in scouts, there was a thing called Bob a job where you went to earn money to for the scout hut by doing different bobs and jobs. And I went round cutting the pensioners lawns. And when Bobber job finished, I went back around afterwards and I was doing it for my own little business. So, it’s the first job I ever did. I love cutting the lawn. Well, let me just explain to you the dynamics of height of cut and how to cut. And if you if you get hold of this, this is the real secret of success with a lawn. What happens if you cut it too short? Well, if you cut it too short, you’re taking out the blades of grass that are photosynthesizing, using light to produce food. So it weakens the plant and generally if you’ve got smaller top you don’t have as strong a root system. So there are some varieties of grass that you can grow that specifically for shortness that they use on bowling greens and the like. But general grass that you would use in a in a family garden with pets and children. Don’t cut that too short. It weakens the plant’s ability to grow and set up a good root system. What happens if you don’t cut the grass at all? Well, we’ve all done it. Come back from a two week holiday. Grass has all grown, flopped down because it rained and sun while we were away. And then you cut it and it’s difficult to cut because it whips around rather than being upright if it’s short. And sometimes it takes two to three cuts for the grass to recover from letting it overgrow. So somewhere in between the very short and the very tall is where the success of a decent lawn is. Generally speaking, in summer, mow between 25 and 35 mm, raising the height during the extreme heat. In autumn, aim for 30 to 40 mm. Through winter, keep it around 35 to 40 mm. In spring, cut to 30 to 45 mm. These heights preserve sufficient leaf to fuel growth and protect the roots across the seasons. Now, when I started cutting lawns for me dad when I was a kid, you used to have to take washers out to change the height of the cut. Nowadays, it’s just a bar at the side. Look at that. One down, one up. You can adjust the height going. Now, a good tip with cutting the lawns is cut little and often. Don’t let it go too long cuz it’s difficult to recover. And don’t think you’re saving time or saving a cut by cutting it really short. meaning I won’t have to cut it until a lot later on. The other tip is cut in different directions. If you’re cutting this way, one cut, cut that way, the next, and then another diamond, just to mix it around a little. The other thing is make sure the blades of your lawn mower are always kept sharp. And service your lawn mower on a regular basis as well. That makes the job of cutting so much easy. But I find cutting the lawn a great workout for your body and your legs and the enjoyment of seeing a finished job of a perfect lawn is marvelous. [Music] Raking the lawn is also very important. It also gives you a pretty good workout at the same time. There are a couple of styles of rake. Don’t use this one. This is a I call it a tea bar rake or a soil rake. if you use it in the lawn, it just it just gets stuck. Whereas this rake here, a spring tine rake or a tine rake or a lawn rake, has uh these very light springy ends to it. I suppose if it was a hairbrush, it’s a type of hairbrush you’d use if you had matted or knotted hair because it just scrapes over the surface rather than digging in deep. and it works particularly well in collecting up leaves that have fallen onto the lawn. Now, let me just explain about leaves on the lawn. If there’s only one or two dotted around in the lawn, don’t worry about them. The worms will pull them underground and they rot underground and it helps create organic material in the soil. However, we all know it. When the wind blows around, it collects the leaves up into one particular area. It may be because the house is there or the garage or the wall and the movement of the air. You know, there’s a certain area on your lawn that gets covered with the leaves as the wind blows them. This heavy dump of leaves is what you definitely need to remove. Otherwise, it covers over the surface. And by covering the surface, it blocks out the light coming to the lawn. Very similar to the paddling pool. You know, when you put the paddling pool out for the kids and you leave it out there for a while and then you let the water out and you lift it up, there’s a massive yellow patch in the middle. That’s because the light isn’t getting to the lawn. It can’t produce the chlorophyll, which turns the leaves green, which of course photosynthesizes. So, it’s best to remove those dumps of leaves, not only for the light, but also the damp can cause fungus and disease. So, big dumps of leaves with a rake like this works bit. Look how easy that is. And notice the angle of the rake spled out at the end enables you easily to collect up the leaves. It also enables you to rake out the thatch. Now the thatch is an accumulation around the base stem or the crown of the grass. And it could be a combination of old leaves, grass clippings, and a whole host of others. And I’ll show you this now. I’m going to deep rake here to try and clear out some of the thatch and debris that’s built up at the base of the lawn. I’ll tell you something, it’s a pretty good workout as well for upper body strength, uh, arms, shoulders, back, a bit of the core. The secret is if you are doing it, work on one area for about 10 minutes and the next day come and do the next and slowly work your way around the garden. And what you’re collecting up is moss, is leaves, is other bits of cut grass, and really clearing the base around where the grass is actually growing out, which is perfect because it opens up the space ready for the next stage, which is erration. And I’m going to come on to that shortly. But before I do, what do you do with the leaves and the thatch you’ve already raked up, let me show you what you end up with in the end is perfect for creating organic material to be dug back into your soil. Collect up the leaves and collect up this thatch cuz it’s perfect for composting. In fact, with a lot of the leaves, I just put them in these hessen sacks. They’re ever so easy, and they rot down. Stuff your leaves in, take those bags, put them behind the garage or at the back of the shed or somewhere, and over a year, it rots down to produce this leaf mold, which is perfect for digging into the soil. And the health of your soil is the key to the success with gardening. And if you want more information about soil health and what soil is, just go back and take a look at episode one. Right, with the lawn ra, just time to smarten up the edges. Now, taking the opportunity in October to edge the lawn adds a great deal of crispness to the whole lawn area that’ll carry you right the way through the winter. And it’s best done with one of these. I used to call it a half moon because that’s exactly what it looked like. A lawn edger or a edging knife is the uh is the other term. And what you do is just place it into the ground, cut down, and then gently push the soil back and follow it all the way along. If you’re creating this crisp edge, that really helps the garden. some cases it’s already cut, but the soil has just flown away. And that’s really what we’re doing. A little gap in between the grass and the soil. [Music] One of the things to think about is when you’ve got a very successful lawn and you’re using your garden a lot, sometimes the soil can get a little bit compacted and congested. either because the grass is growing so well, it’s producing a lot of roots and the roots just grow into each other and there’s not enough air and moisture getting into the soil or you’ve been playing on it shooting the football, barbecue, parties, kids, pets, and all sorts. So, there is a way that you can add a few holes into the lawn to help moisture get in and also to sort of break up the compaction of the roots. And it can be done in a couple of ways. The easiest way is just with a fork. You really want to spike into the ground about 7 and 12 to 10 cm and then roughly between 10 and 15 cm apart. And you work your way all over your lawn. That way these holes, it’s easier for the roots to then regrow. And you can add some top dressing to go into those holes as well. And I’ll explain a bit more about that later. Now, if you’ve got really compacted soil, you can use this, which is a hollow tine. Effectively, it is just almost like a tube. And as you insert it into the ground, it takes a core of soil out. And then you go into the next holes that you make, it’s selfcleing because it just pops out of the top. Now, leaving that hole is great because it partially prunes the roots. And when you top dress afterwards to put some more fresh soil into those holes, it’s perfect for the lawn. Helps it breathe, accept moisture, and also you can add a little bit of fertilizer to help the growth, too. Now’s the time that you can add things into the lawn to help it grow. So, in October, with the lawn cut, with the lawn rad, with the lawn edged, and also airrated, you can add some goodness into the lawn as well. Now, normally in spring you feed with a spring lawn fertilizer, very high in nitrogen, which is pretty good for the leaves or the blades of the grass to grow. But during autumn time, you want to concentrate on the roots. So, the autumn lawn fertilizer focuses in on potachsh and phosphorus, which is pretty good for root growth. Another thing you can do certainly if you put hollow tines or you’ve arrated the lawn is to use a top dressing. Now this is lovely to add into the uh into the lawn itself. It contains a little bit of lom which is soil. Also contains plenty of sand as well which is great for the drainage and the irration and also has food in it too. So you just rake this into the surface of the lawn. It falls into the little holes you’ve made with the aeration and it feeds the lawn aid’s water getting through and air as well. Plus, if you’ve got a little bit of bumping or uneven ground in the lawn, it’s pretty good for leveling that up as well. Also, of course, if it’s warm during October, you can mix in a little bit of seed as well. The secret is thick, lush lawn competes with weeds and moss. And I’ll cover a bit more of that in a moment. But adding in fertilizer in autumn goes a significant way of boosting the health of your lawn. [Music] The one thing about healthy lawn is it out competes weeds. So the weeds that may pop into your lawn because it’s growing so well, they’re all fighting for the moisture and the light, the lawn will generally win. Now, there is a daisy grubber that enables you to get down and actually lift not only the the top part of the lawn weed, but also the root as well. And that is pretty good. And doing it manually rather than using chemicals on your lawn gives you a very good organic option. But feeding is key because it’s the health of the lawn. Now, if you are taking out dandelions and there’s all this business about no mo, etc. The bottom line is just making sure there’s a ready supply of food for pollinators, not just in spring, but all year round. So if you plant borders certainly for earlier on in the season with lovely beninis with their pink or white flowers, hellaors, gorgeous pulmonarious, little cheeky forget me knots. If you put those in the borders and you have a nectar rich garden with availability of flowers all year round, it’s brilliant for the pollinators or leave a space in your garden to go a little bit wild for nature. That way it offsets. you get a perfect lawn, but you can also help the creatures that live in your garden. Now, with moss in the lawn, it is always better to cure the problem rather than just keep eradicating the moss. And generally speaking, if you’reating your lawn, leaving a decent height of cut, you’re generally helping the drainage of the lawn because it’s the water that’s causing the issue with the moss. You can also put in some lawn drains at certain low parts of the garden as well to help. And if you’ve done that, keeping the lawn looking beautiful is an easy stepbystep thing to do. You’ve just got to learn to love your lawn. [Music] Don’t think October is so close to winter that all gardening ceases. On the contrary, it’s a perfect month for getting vegetables and fruit in the ground. Varieties like chard, cileriac. Let’s have a look at these young plants here. Perfect to get into the ground. Beetroot, leaks, perpetual spinach. It’s a great planting month. Not only that, same for fruit, too. Raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, currants, rhubarb are all ideal to get into the ground and while there’s a little bit of warmth still about so they can send out roots and get established. There’s a lot happening. So, don’t finish gardening October. Get started. Spend 10 minutes now and then enjoy months of color. Here’s my October bulb master class. Autumn brings a lot of different gardening activities, but one of my favorites is planting of bulbs. Now, this one is a daffodil. What a beauty. A flower packaged by nature. They’ve evolved over time from very hot areas where the blistering heat of the sun and not much moisture means the plants found it difficult to survive. So they’ve adapted that to go up, grow in spring, reproduce, and then go underground during the heat of the summer into dormcancy right the way through winter and then in spring to burst into flower again and repeat the cycle. Now we plant bulbs in our gardens during autumn time, buying them in dormant stages like this. And there are many different types that you can get. There are tulips and there are crocus. There are grape hyints and and many others. Now the proper name for bulb certainly much like this one here is a geopyte. And the geophy is described as having a basial plate like this one’s got here where you can see some of the roots, a little chute top at the end, tunic and some scales around the outside. That’s a classification of a bulb. There are some that are slightly different. A corn, for instance, looks pretty much like a bulb. This is a little baby crocus here. But if you cut it in half, it’s more solid compared to if you cut a daffodil bulb in half. And in fact, let me just show you what you get inside. There we are. As you can see here, right in the middle, that’s sort of a yellowy section there that looks a bit different from the rest on the outside. That is a very infantile flower and foliage. And all this around the outside is all the energy to send out the roots and to fuel the flower and the foliage to burst forth when it comes into spring. Now these layers that are effectively the energy source for the plant, you see when you chop an onion, all the leaflets that fall around the outside is all the energy. Now you can eat an onion. You can’t eat a daffodil because they’re toxic. But the the essence of the storage within these layers or underground leaflets is where it all comes from. Where if you look at a corn, it’s slightly different. Let me just cut this in half. It’s a little bit more solid. You can see the little chute just there at the top and the energy of the plant underneath, but it’s more stemlike, but that again is the storage unit for the bulbs. So, the secret of success is to think of a bulb like a battery. It has the energy inside and when it grows and when it flowers and then there’s the leaves and you’ve got them in the garden, never cut the leaves off. people who say that their bulbs don’t flower the next year is you’re not giving it enough chance to use its solar panled leaves to recharge the battery. So the secret is whether you’re growing anything like crocus or daffodils, don’t chop the foliage off. the four to eight weeks of leaves after it finishes flowering is recharging that battery. So you get really good flowers and foliage from the second year. And the magical thing about bulbs is there are so many different types that you can plant into the garden to give you beautiful color in spring. This one here looks a bit like an ugly duckling. Look at it there. Massive bulb itself. Bit scruffy on the outside. roots hanging out that this ugly duckling turns into a horicultural swan. I’ll tell you this is what produces the giant ornamental onions. The aliums massive stem that comes up firework burst of purple at the top or white depending on the varieties foliage beneath. It is a most gorgeous plant to put into the garden. not only appreciated by us humans but also the bees and other pollinators that visit the garden. It’s a great source of food for them. So the alium is well worth adding. Next one on is the higher. This flowers in spring although in garden centers you can buy some we call them prepared where they’ve been given a little bit of a cold storage and that way it’ll flower for Christmas. But if you buy the normal ones it flowers in spring. There’s an outer tunic to it, slightly metallic in color. Now, some people get itching from the outer part of the uh of the skin here. So, if you’re if you’re shopping for bulbs uh and uh you you have an allergic reaction to higher, bear that in mind. Um but beautiful flowers, gorgeous fragrance used by many of the perfume manufacturers. The scent of higher synth really does change your mood and uplift your heart. Next one, of course, is the daffodil. That always puts a smile on our faces. Now, daffodil’s Latin name is Narcissus. And if you’d like to know where that name came from, it came from Greek mythology. There was once this man so handsome he could not find anybody beautiful enough for him to fall in love with and marry. Eventually he did. But what he found was his own reflection in a pool and he fell in love with his own image. And that’s where he got the name Narcissus and where we get the name narcissistic where people crave attention for themselves. But the beautiful nodding head of the daffodil is supposed to represent the Greek Narcissus looking down at his own reflection in the water. Next one up is a huge favorite. The gorgeous cups of tulips. So many different types. Almost look hand painted by nature. It is a lovely plant to grow in containers or bedding borders as well. so much from one bowl. This little one here is in fact a grape hyer mascari we call them. Not a real higher synin as such, but a little dwarf flower that looks slightly similar. Great for small containers or the front of a border. Really to put a smile on your face. This little bulb here again looking slightly metallic on the outside. You will know it’s crocus. one of the first ones to come into flower at the beginning of the year. Bursts of color just at the end of winter. It’s purples or or its golds or or whites. It’s a beautiful plant really early on in the season. Now, this little scruffy bulb at the end, don’t knock it. It is in fact the snow drop. you know, sub-zero temperatures and this plant produces some of the earliest flowers that we see in Britain. It is just gorgeous. And it can grow in these sub-zero temperatures because it has a unique ability. It has a protein with inside itself that’s an antifreeze and stops the crystallization of water in its stems. And that’s how it can grow and produce beautiful flowers. But the most important thing about the snow drop, it puts a smile on our face at the beginning of the season. And if you go into garden centers now and take a look at all the different bulb types available, and there are so many this there’s there’s crocus at the end. Tulips here, mascari. That’s what you get. Packaging in the back with lovely bulbs all ready to go into the ground. And of course, you get new varieties. Now, this is a new variety, elenberg. And as you can see, it’s a gorgeous tulip, but look at the foliage. It’s variegated. It’s not just about the beauty of the flower. You’ve got an emerald green center with margins of pure white around the outside. Now, with bulbs, some of them stay in the ground and continue to grow. Others fizzle out. Let me just let me just draw this example out of these bulbs here. Okay. So, daffodils, crocus, snow drops will come back more and more each year. You’re not cutting back the foliage so they can charge the bulb back up because they have really adapted to our climate and grow very strong. They have enough foliage after flowering above ground to be able to maximize on photosynthesizing, taking in nutrients to recharge the battery. And many of them have been bred to be regular additions to the garden. And of course, they populate and reproduce as well. So, daffodils, crocus, and snow drops, you put them into the garden, it’s an investment because they’ll grow and get bigger and there’ll be more blooms and more growth, providing you’re not cutting the head down. And if you give a bit of feed once it’s finished flowering again, you’re recharging the battery. Whereas hyins and tulips have a tendency to fizzle out. Now, it’s not all tulips. There are some tulip varieties that are better adapted to be more permanent within the garden, but generally speaking, a lot of the tulips, the breeding has favored the beauty and the effect of the flower, more for bedding out, for a bit of color. Also, they have quite a bit of foliage, and many people cut that foliage down at the end of the flowering time so not to mess up the borders, and that’s obviously stopping the bulb being recharged. But you may get some flower for a couple of years after, but it eventually goes unlike the daffodils and the like that keep producing more babies as they grow. And likewise the higher synin as well runs out of energy. So the secret for naturalizing is investing money in daffodils, in snow drops and in crocus. And for more flamboyant displays but for a shorter period of time hyints and tulips. There are a few exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking, that’s a good guide. Now, you may ask the question, why don’t you grow tulips and daffodils from seed? Well, here we are. This is one of my tulips from this year. I’ve just dried. Uh that’s one thing you can do. I’ve dried a whole load of these tulips and um I’ve done the same with my aliums. And then for Christmas, they make pretty good natural Christmas decorations. You can spray them either silver or gold to create something really quite beautiful. But as you can see inside, there are some tiny seeds. But if I was to grow these seeds, it could take three to five years before it produces a bulb big enough to show a flower. and the flower won’t be the same as this one because it would have pollinated with another variety. Therefore, it could be completely different. So, if you’re looking for a fast effect, the best way to buy bulbs is big as you can. Okay? The smaller the bulb, the less energy. The bigger the bulb, the more energy. So, sometimes you see, I don’t know, discount packs at at some supermarkets and it looks like a low value, but the bulb is small. where if you bought them at a credible garden center, the bulb is much bigger. You get a better display. So, always buy high quality bulbs as big as you possibly can. And all of these tulips and higher sense, again, you plant in autumn for flowering spring. There is only one bulb category that’s slightly different. When we come into January, garden centers get summer bulbs in. And not all of them are bulbs. some of the arisos, some of the tubers, but their varieties like ders, like lilies, like beonas and the like. So during uh uh autumn time, it’s the spring flowering bulbs and then the beginning of the year, it’s really summer flowering bulbs. And we’re going to cover those in a future episode. Right. And here’s the real fun bit, planting them in the ground. [Music] I love planting bulbs. Now, if you’re buying them in bags like that to naturalize, that’s what they look like. You get a sack, something similar, with a whole load of bulbs in. They naturalize really well planted in drifts in the lawn. And if you want a good tip, get yourself a pot or a bucket, tip all your bulbs into that, and then go to your lawn and throw them out like that. And as they land in that sort of random drift, plant them where the bulbs land. That way, it’s not like, you know, cutting out a square and just putting the bulbs in. That way, you’re you’re flowing a a fluid path of where the bulbs go. These bulbs propagate themselves naturally. And once you’ve planted them, you don’t have to do anything. Leave the bulbs in their position and watch them spread and multiply on their own, forming larger drifts of flowers year after year. Now, if you’re planting in a border, that’s completely different. And there are many different tools that you can use to plant them in. Let’s just take a look at the bulb itself. So, generally speaking, it’s 2 and 1/2 times the height of the bulb is the depth that you plant. Some people do it by two times, some people buy three times, but two and a half, split the difference, is a safer option. But generally speaking, where’s that label? At the back of the label, there’s always instructions on depth and how to plant. So utilize the information you get when you buy the bulbs themselves. They prefer a sunny or dappled shade position. Sunny the better. Not only to help the bulb photosynthesize and produce energy, but also to see them flower in sunshine. The other thing is they don’t like their bums in the wet. So if you’ve got particularly soggy soil, you can plant on top of grit. take a bit more soil out and then put a layer of grit to aid a bit of free drainage because the drainage is key when it comes down to bulbs. And do you know what the similarity between a light bulb and a flower bulb is? Let me explain. Usually when you’re digging a hole with a tel, you you can never quite dig a flat bottomed hole. It’ll always be as you dig it out sort of like a a a a V really as the point of the TR goes in and then when you put your bulb in it gets sort of wedged in between the sides of the V that you’ve planted and water gets in there and that’s what rots the bulb. So here’s the tip. A light bulb bayonet fitting or screw fitting when you install it you push and twist. Push and twist. Do the same with your flower bulbs. Push and twist so you force the base of the bulb to hit the base of the soil so no moisture gets in and your bulb will flower rather than rot. So planting them in the ground, you’ve got a few tools for the job. You’ve got the tel of course where you can move in and dig a hole. You’ve also got a bulb planter which you force into the soil like this. Give it a little turn and it actually takes a core of soil out. And there’s a little little bit here where your thumb goes that you release it to drop the soil back in. There’s also a little one too which is great for things like crocus and the like. slightly smaller bore that you can put into the ground and then take a core of soil out to plant. You can also have a much bigger one for larger planting, which means you can plant more or less upright rather than getting down. Do you want me to tell you something personal? Do you know what my favorite garden tool is? It’s not secretaries. It’s not a spade. I’ve reached that age. It’s the kneeler. It’s the most comfortable thing because if you get yourself comfortable and you’re planting bulbs, it is a most pleasurable experience. I’m just going to plant a bulb right now. So, I’m going to put the bulb planter in. Take out a core of soil. So, if it was bad drainage, you could put a little bit of grit just at the bottom. But if it’s good drainage like this, I like to tuck them up as if I’m putting them to bed. So I will put a little bit of bulb fiber at the bottom of the hole there. So when the bulb goes in, it’s got a nice little soft bed underneath. So when it sends out roots and gets established, there’s a little bit of food in the bulb fiber. There’s also a little bit of grit and sand that helps the bulb with drainage. and then release the core on the top and then firm in. There we are. All tucked up in the soil. So, there’s lots of different tools to make the job of planting so much easier. If you were planting a lot in this area, I just get a spade, take away the soil to the right depth that you’re planting, maybe a bit more if you’re going to put grit and bulb fiber in. Lay out all the bulbs and then just put the soil on the top. It’s a quicker way to plant. Not daffodils, but some bulbs are susceptible to squirrels getting them. You can just sort of like when you planted the bulbs, just put a layer of chicken wire and then a bit of soil on the top. The bulbs will grow through it and it’ll stop the squirrels getting at the bulbs themselves. Some people also use fragrant soap and just grate a bit of that over the surface and the fragrance of the soap masks the scent of the bulb until they’ve settled themselves into the ground. [Music] Not everybody’s got space to plant them out into borders or your borders may already be full. But if you’ve got a balcony or a patio, you can grow bulbs in containers. And sometimes if you’ve missed planting bulbs in autumn and you comes to springtime and all your neighbors have got beautiful bulbs, you walk into garden centers and see containers already been planted up and forced ready to use. Now this is one I bought in spring this year. It’s it’s grape hyint. If you notice, the growers have packed them all tight together, and they’re not even underneath the soil, but they’ve been grown in special conditions where they put straw over the top to give it that insulation and to cheat the bulb to think it’s under the ground. And you get a beautiful display. And at the end of it, I separate all these and plant them properly in the garden. But if you want bulbs in containers, it’s so much better to plant them for yourself. Now, there are lots of different containers available. Here’s a big one. The bigger the container, the bigger the display. You can get the depths of planting right. But if you plant your own, you have several advantages. One of them is it’s considerably cheaper because you’re doing the labor yourself. Secondly, you can choose the varieties that you want in the containers and color theme, too. You want all purples, silvers, and pinks. The choice is yours and take some time in the garden center to have a look and choose the palette of color just right for you. But the really important thing is if you layer plant bigger bulbs at the bottom, smaller bulbs at the top, different varieties, you can have successional flowering. In fact, if you choose right, there’s no reason why you couldn’t easily have more than a hundred days of color. as earlier ones start and as they fade later ones come up. Now, let me show you how. Rather than a big container, I’ve just got a small one here really cuz it’s in proportion of the space that I’ve got to show you. And don’t worry, you won’t see my hands planting like this. I’ve actually cut it in half for you to be able to take a look. And as you can see at the bottom, I’ve put a little bit of grit and gravel. Now, that’s just going to help the drainage because remember, bulbs like free draining soil. They don’t like their bums in the wet. Next, I’ve used bulb fiber. Now, bulb fiber is very different from multi-purpose compost because it’s been particularly formulated for bulbs. It’s got a bit more grit and sand, which aids drainage and slowrelease fertilizer. So when the plant is finishing flowering or flowering, it’s taking up the energy again to recharge the bulb battery. So there we have it. Nice container. It’s simple layer planting at the bottom. Remember the depth of it, two and a half times approximately the height of the bulb. You can nestle in at the bottom a whole layer of these daffodil bulbs which will come up and initiate flower at the top. Then two and a half times down, I am planting tulips. Now, if you notice, I am staggering them. So, the one isn’t directly underneath. So, it’s pushing the bulb out. I’m slightly staggering them there to get that effect. Now, I’m only doing this in one line. Obviously, I’ll be planting more of them at the back and more of them in the other half of the container, but I think you’re getting the picture. And then along the top, what am I going to do? Snow drops or crocus? Snow drops. In fact, I’ll do crocus. So I’m just putting crocus just in the top. So what happens is the crocus obviously will be the first to come in to flower giving me a flush of color at the surface. Next from the bottom the daffodils will come out and flower and then the tulips a little bit later on. Now I call this layer planting. Other people call it lasagna planting, but it represents levels and depths. So you can have successional flowering using different types of plant that flower at different times of the year. And you can choose your own combination to give you days and days of color all on your patio. [Music] Out of all the spectacular show gardens here at Bridgemir, there is one that has a personality all of its own. It’s the Japanese garden. A real celebration of tranquility and calmness. a fusion of stone, of water, and of plants. It is beautiful. But before we take a look, let’s hear what others have got to say once they visited. It’s my first time at Bridgemir today, and I’ve looked around all the gardens. But I have to say that when I walked into the Japanese garden, it’s like walking to another world. So peaceful, tranquil, different plants, nice use of water. Fantastic. you recognize it as a Japanese garden as soon as you start to come towards it with the bridge the shape of it and everything. It is the shape of the architecture and the bridge and it’s what it’s what we visualize as what’s to come. My impression as I walk into it I find a very relaxing place. The uh the buildings I always think have got that real different sort of class of painting to our country. There’s bright colors and also they all pick out the things like the aca trees. It’s just nice to wander around and it’s calming and quiet and peaceful and it’s it’s simple. There’s not too many different sort of plants in there, but it has the right effect. I also spoke to head gardener Bernard about why he thinks Japanese gardens are so special. Bernard, what does this garden mean to you? You curate so many. Why is this one special? Uh cuz when we I come up here 15 years ago, didn’t know it was here. It was the stones and the features were all buried under under the ground. 4 foot of briars and everything. Now me and Sam have uh tried to reinvent it a little bit. Usually usually some of the old features. this was buried in bars and weed and you couldn’t actually see it and uh just thought it would make a nice little addition to the rest of the garden. Something completely different. I’ve always found Japanese gardens are a a rich engagement with your senses. Your site, for instance, every plant is a special specimen, a almost like a little work of art. So the ice is the fluid movement of the leaves of the cryptoriia or the Japanese maple and it changes with the seasons visually as well with the autumn color and the spring and summer. But of course it’s also about sound and you can hear the rustling of the bamboo in the distance, the sound of feet on the gravel and the tranquil sound of moving water as well. And the scent too, another important sense and that is the fragrance coming from the star jasmine. Now the tactility as well of the slightly soft foliage of the Japanese maple or the smooth stems of the bamboo. Well, that only leaves one sense left and that’s the sense of taste. Because I’ll tell you something, if I was working here, the tranquility of this garden is where I’d be taking my pack lunch, sitting down there, relaxing and enjoying it. The Japanese garden is so very unique here at Bridgemia Show Gardens. And I’m glad to hear it’s so very well loved. [Music] Well, it was only a matter of a few weeks ago in a previous episode that Bernard had the challenge of how big these onions are going to grow. Just to remind ourselves of what you said, take a look at this. Okay, so round about our October episode, I want to have a look to see how big. So give give me a gesture on how big you think yours. If if they aren’t all over two pound, there’ll be something wrong. You’re going to have to talk. So about about that. Yeah. Okay. So we’re going to hold you to that a little bit later. My my claim many years was was try and grow one over five pound, but really I only ever got to four and a half. I never managed a 5 pounder. Well, there you are, Bernard. Okay. Do that hand movement again. That’s where we That’s where we were looking somewhere. Let’s let let’s let’s take it in. How how Yeah, it’s failed a little bit. Yeah, you moved your hands a bit closer as well, did you? That’s it. It’s not catching fish. No, I don’t think you’ve done too bad cuz it’s been an incredibly dry season. Yeah, for for a lot. And I think they’re that’s cracking looking onions. They’re nice. They’d be nice tasting as well. They quite sweet. Let’s put one in for for weighing. You said two pound two pound 1.86. Yeah, it’s not. I think you far away. They look lovely. They look good. Delicious. So, what what what do you do with them from now? That’ll uh once that’s dried out and put it on a rack, dry it till all the tops dry. Yeah. And then when we’ve got them all ready, we’ll actually plat the tops and sort them all in the greenhouse. Those fingers look particularly good for platting the size of these. Yeah, we we’ve got we’ve got a young lady that works with us that can do that as well. You can work them in there. But but that the growing onion season isn’t over now because obviously following crop rotation you’ve got another bed you can start planting now. October is great for put put the autumn onions in. Yeah. And the autumn garlic. Yeah. Then you get a put them in there. You get a very early crop. You get them end of May, beginning of June. Brilliant. And if you can find the one variety they’ve got, the golden one. Yeah. You can actually use them for spring onions at Christmas. Nothing beats growing your own and the flavor of uh can this one come back in my kitchen? I certainly can. Thanks, Bernard. Okay, plant the onions in October to have a nice little crop when it comes down to Christmas and early in the new year. Blossom in spring, summer foliage, fruit in autumn, and autumn color, too. Meas crab apples earns its place many times over. Here’s what you need to know before you plant a crab apple. Our tree of the month for October is a real corker. Look behind me here. This is a crab apple. And look at the gorgeous fruits just going through the foliage. Got lovely foliage. It should have really turned by now into autumn color, but it’s in quite a shelter position. It’ll be going into that shortly. And then you’ve got the lovely autumn color of the foliage. it it falls and you can still see the fruits but it’s on bare stems almost bble like fruits all the way through. This is a multi- stem one which means there several stems from the base but you normally buy them to create one trunk and then the head on top gets to anything between 8 to 12 m tall with about an 8 m head. It’s quite a broad head to the trees itself and it just looks so spectacular. Birds love it. They love taking the fruits. In fact, sometimes the fruit can stay on into the new year depending on how hard the winter is and how hungry your birds are, of course. Let’s just take a look at one of the It’s a perfect mini apple. Isn’t that gorgeous? Now, you can eat it not straight off like a normal apple. Obviously exactly the same family, but if you cook with it, you can create some really tasty jams and jelly from the crab apple. It gets its name crab apple. One, because obviously it’s an apple, and two, when it gets really old, it gets a bit gnled and crabby. So that’s where the crab apple comes from. It’s not just about the fruits in autumn. You also get beautiful blossom in spring, white. Some of them are tinged with pink. Some of them are really dark pink actually. So, there’s a quite a variety to choose from and I’ll show you a different example of the varieties in a little while. Also, the blossom works well cuz it pollinates with your domestic apples. And if you’re interested in apples, check out episode two of step by step where I give bit more of a master class on domestic apples. So you get summer foliage, spring blossom, autumn foliage color, and you get the fruits as well, which you can harvest and use in the kitchen. What’s not to like? Prefers a sunnier position in well- drained soil. And it’s a good medium to large size tree for your garden. Now, they don’t just come in gold fruits like this. Oh, no. There are other varieties with different colored fruit and different color foliage. Now, I do love the golden crab apples. My personal favorite is golden hornet, but let’s take a look at the type of tree and the size of tree that you’re more likely to get when you first buy a crab apple. And as you can see, you don’t have to wait for ages for it to start to fruit. Look at this one here. Now, this one’s called Butterball and slightly different color. sort of like a slightly tinge reddish on these uh yellowy green uh apples, but a lovely tree. And as you can see, it looks something pretty good. So, you buy a tree that sort of size to plant into your garden. Now, it’s not just gold and green. Here’s a lovely one. This is called Sun Rival. looks more like cherries than uh than apples, but isn’t that gorgeous? It’s just these lovely clusters, almost translucent berries, although they are solid, but they give you that that visual effect. And again, the weight of the fruit helping bow the branches. It’s not just about the fruit. It’s also about the foliage as well. Toringo Aros is one of the varieties. Now, look at the foliage. It’s almost jet black, but it isn’t. It’s very, very dark purple. And have we got some of the berry? Oh, yeah. Here’s one of the here’s some of the fruits there. Not as spectacular as the others, but it’s specifically grown for the foliage. And look at the flowers here. And if you look at the back of the label, you get all the instructions as well and how to plant it. So, always make sure you check when you buy. But the beauty of crab apples, it’s a lovely tree for the garden and you get visual effects almost every month of the year. and October is a great month to plant them, too. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you liked it, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to this channel for more great content like this. Coming up will be our November issue, so don’t miss out. Enjoy your garden. [Music]