Autumn Gardening – It’s All About Preparing For Spring
As autumn set in and the days get shorter and darker, autumn gardening mainly consists of preparing for the coming spring. There’s the final tidy-up, getting everything prepared for the coming winter months.
There is of course, pruning, and more pruning, seems to go on forever. And kind of looks all bare and sort of sad and lonely, but also, the thought of the new potential you are developing for next year, when everything springs back to life and is wonderful again.
There’s also the mulching to add extra nutrients into the soil and help improvethe structure. Two or three inches of really good composted farmyard manure, should do the trick. Not only will this add extra nutrients to the soil, but it will help protect, to some degree, tender plant roots from the worst of the winter temperatures.
So when everything is all prepared, tidy-up completed and tools washed and oiled ready for the following season, what’s left to be done in our gardening?
Bulb Planning
I get excited every year when it comes to planting spring flowering bulbs. Of course, like almost everyone, I love the daffodils, especially the double petal varieties, like ‘Cheerfulness’ ‘Ice King’ and my personal favourite ‘Bridal Crown’. Not only are these daffodils a kind of showoff with their double blooms, but they also have wonderful scents.
Tulips are another popular spring flowering bulb, reliable and consistent, well for me they are, year after year they appear like clockwork. Never lift them, just make sure I let them die back at there own pace, with plenty of liquid seaweed feed.
I occasionally like to add a few new varieties, and this year its going to be, a double variety called ‘Angelique’. An outstanding Tulip with blooms that are a ‘soft blush pink‘ that tends to deepen with age, developing a rich apple blossom ink at the edges, and green markings on the outside.
My second choice this year has to be ‘Black Parrot’. Dramatic blackish-purple, cup-shaped flowers with irregularly cut wavy petals on sturdy stems. Should look spectacular planted in clusters along with Angelique for contrast. Two new colour’s. Dramatic blackish-purple and a stunning soft blush pink. Hopefully they’ll make a great addition and look fabulous come the spring.
Star Of The Show
But the star of the show for myself, has to be the humble Hyacinth. They look fantastic, smell gorgeous and naturalise brilliantly. I planted 5 in a pot 3 years ago, I’ve lifted them in July ready to relocate this year, and 27 bulbs came out. Yep 5 turned into 27 that’s 22 free new plants for free, what more could you ask for.
This year I’m adding to the Hyacinth collection with. ‘Gypsy Queen’. A stunning peachy/orange flower with an intense perfume. It should start flowering in March and April, and they tend to last for weeks.
Another new bulb I’m adding to the Hyacinth collection this year is called ‘Peter Stuyvesant’. A deep, dark violet blue with a highly sweet fragrance. It should look fantastic next to the double daffodils ‘Replete’ another favourite of mine.
This year I’m also going to try a few muscari bulbs. Also known as the grape Hyacinth, because of their urn-shaped flowers resembling bunches of grapes. Commonly blue, but there are other colours available. I’m going with a mixture, to complement the tulips and daffodils for mid spring colour.
I Plant Late And Deep
Mid to late November is the idea time for putting tulips into the ground, but a maybe a few weeks late for others like hyacinths or muscari. On that idea disagree. But feel free to follow your own routine. I tend to go with what has always worked for me.
I also plant slightly deeper than recommended adding an extra 2 inches at least. I think this helps protect them from the extremes of the weather, and really helps with naturalisation. They may flower a week or two later than normal, but with the British weather, that’s not really a great disadvantage.
Autumn Gardening – Its A Waiting Game
Now its the frustration of waiting for nature to take it course, and show its results. We’ve done what we need to. Prepared the soil, planted the bulbs, mulched the surface to add extra nutrients, but like anything that’s going to look fabulous, the one eliminate we cannot control, ‘TIME’. As the weeks pass, we tend to forget those bulbs we planted, and continue to attend to the everyday things that need our attention.
The weeks become months and suddenly, there’s signs of life sprouting, teasing us with a promise of beautiful thing to come in just a few short weeks. Then, as if suddenly, the garden Is full of colour and gorgeous fragrance. The waiting, actually didn’t seem that long after all. You can now thank yourself for the hard work you put in in the autumn.
Autumn Gardening And Weight-Loss
I often think about how weight-loss journeys are so much like autumn gardening. Both take time to show fantastic results, results that were really worth waiting for. Both offer the same frustration while waiting, yet once there the wait didn’t seem that long after all.
I think like gardening, anything that is worth doing, really does needs the journey of time to produce the best results. And just like the bulbs turning into beautiful flowers, we also need the time to transition and become new.
Be A Bulb
Like the bulbs, we’re also growing, most of the time it’s hard to see progress, the bulbs grow for months underground, invisible to the eye, but they are growing. 
Then a small sign of life pops up. A tip pushes up through the surface, giving promise of further development and spring flowers and gorgeous fragrance. Again it seems to take weeks, even months for the magic to happen. But when it does the final results are amazing!
Our weight-loss journeys are very similar, weeks go by with little to really see. Yes the scales show losses, our clothes seem to fit a little better, but it can be hard for the eye to recognise a major difference. Like the bulbs, endurance and being persistent, keep going and the miracle will happen. Its when you get the recognition from friends and colleagues , “WOW! OMG you’ve lost so much weight, you look fantastic!” That we really bloom!
Nature is brilliant and can teach us so much if we listen carefully, and try to emulate a few of it’s habits, especially patience. It takes time to grow, rise up, and reach our full potential.
Philip Eley – The 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan – Sunderland
📞 07827447247
@TheHouseofEley
http://www.facebook.com/thehouseofeley
http://www.instagram.com/TheHouseofEley
#SlimWithPhil
#BeMoreEley #TheHouseofEley #CambridgeDiet #One2OneDiet #Dieting #Weightlosssupport #weightlossjourney #weightloss #Cambridgediet #Riseuptogether #Transition