:: Check your greenhouse thermometer regularly and if the minimum temperature has dropped below 3-4C (38-40F) overnight, you may need to turn it up a little.
:: Check stored fruits every week and use them as fast as you can. Remove any showing signs of mould.
:: Plant tulips in gritty, well-drained compost.
:: Order new fruit trees and bushes and prepare the ground for planting.
:: Prune blackberries and hybrid berry fruits after harvesting.
:: Cut pumpkins and squashes, wipe the dirt off and leave them outside so the skins dry in the sun. They should last until Christmas in a frost-free shed.
:: Remove yellowing leaves from Brussels sprouts and other winter brassicas.
:: Plant evergreens and shrubs in containers for winter colour.
:: Plant or divide and move lily bulbs. They don't like drying out, so replant them immediately.
:: Continue to remove dead leaves from the lawn to stop the grass turning yellow and use the leaves to make leaf mould.
BEST OF THE BUNCH
Hypericum
THIS stalwart shrub produces bright yellow flowers throughout summer, followed by berries, depending on the variety. There's a hypericum for most situations. The larger types look great in a border, the smaller ones will brighten up a rock garden, and you can get both evergreen and deciduous species which provide lovely autumn colour. Certain types will also bear berries. H. androsaemum (Tutsan), for instance, a bushy, deciduous shrub which grows up to 75cm tall, produces red berries which ripen to black in autumn. Larger shrubs prefer moist but well-drained soil in sun or partial shade, while the smaller rock garden types prefer full sun and good draining. Trim them in spring to keep them neat or cut the larger deciduous types back hard in early spring to contain their growth.
