Norfolk School of Gardening: All about autumn colour

The sun is due to shine warmly again, but we had some really autumnal temperatures and a blustery wind to start the week.

It’s suddenly been long trousers and a couple of layers, plus a waterproof at the ready.

Maybe you are as reluctant as I am to let go of the summer, which is why I was so sad to see the battering some plants took in Monday’s winds.

Certificate in Practical Horticulture week one(Image: Norfolk School of Gardening)

The glorious pink cosmos which turned up in the middle of the garden of its own accord has been snapped and I really miss it.

Somehow the runner bean supports have survived, and we are still harvesting beans, courgettes and tomatoes, albeit at a much slower pace than a couple of weeks ago.

Of course, it isn’t just the lower temperatures but also the shorter days which slow everything down and remind me that we need to get on with sowing seeds which should overwinter if we can get them established soon.

We did make a start this week, with sowings of the first sweet peas plus some winter salad and fast-growing brassicas.

Red Admiral on Verbena bonariensis(Image: Norfolk School of Gardening)

But although some of them had germinated within a few days the mice had also found them by then and there are tell-tale dents in the seed trays.

It remains to be seen how many sweet peas seeds they unearthed, but we will probably need to do a second sowing soon.

The rain was really welcome and the grass which has been so brown and short all summer has suddenly become lush.

It certainly makes weeding a lot easier too, especially in our veg patch where a lot of Verbena bonariensis has drifted over the fence and established itself.

The students on the first week of the new Certificate in Practical Horticulture learned the reality of that old adage, ‘a weed is just a plant in the wrong place’ as they dug up and took home armfuls of verbena!

Seed packet sorting for autumn sowing(Image: Norfolk School of Gardening)

If you are looking at your garden and wondering how much colour will be left in a few more weeks you might want to get some inspiration on our excellent ‘Planting for Year-Round Colour & Interest’.

Taught by Norfolk designer and RHS Wisley trained plantswoman Katy Noon, it is a hugely popular course with a few spaces left.

These are some of the other courses in the next few weeks which have spaces available.

Let us know if you’d like to join us:

· Border Renovation – 1st October

· Planting for Year-Round Colour & Interest – 8th October

· Advanced Practical Gardening – 29th October

· Basic Bricklaying – 31st October

· Sustainable Cutting Garden – 5th November

· Your Veg Patch – 6th November

Anemome x hybrida Honorine(Image: Norfolk School of Gardening)

Plant of the Week

Anemone × hybrida ‘Honorine Jobert’ is a graceful late-season perennial, producing tall, slender stems topped with pure white, single flowers with golden centres.

Flowering from August into October, it brings light and elegance to shadier parts of the garden, thriving at woodland edges or in mixed borders where its luminous blooms contrast beautifully with darker foliage.

First bred in France in the 1850s from Japanese origins, it has remained a garden classic for generations.

Plant in fertile, moisture-retentive but well-drained soil, ideally in part shade, and it will gradually form natural-looking clumps.

Maintenance is simple: cut down spent stems in late autumn and mulch in spring.

Pollinators visit freely, extending its value.

Hardy, long-lived, and effortlessly elegant, it is one of the finest perennials for autumn colour.