Alison Marsden, Gardening by Design

Take a break from the real work for a spot of ‘horticultural research’

One of the most enjoyable gardening activities of the autumn is taking time out from cutting, raking and mulching to visit a garden well stocked with ‘autumn colour’. And until the first frost you have the double delight of bright late summer flowers against the tapestry backdrop of autumn leaves on the turn. Pick a sunny day and add the chance to buy one or two of the plants on display from an on-site nursery and perhaps autumn really is your favourite season. Almost anyone can appreciate the glowing colours of autumn but gardeners want to capture the effect for themselves and learn a trick or two or find a new plant to enhance their own plot. Here are a few thoughts to help you get the best from your garden visits this autumn.

There is no need to advise gardeners to ‘wear sensible shoes’ but bear in mind that different soils react differently to autumn rains. If you live on free draining sand or chalk the ground may be quite dry but travelling a few miles to a garden on Wealden clay may be a soggy experience underfoot.

Much of the fun of garden visiting is in discovering unfamiliar plants that you take a fancy to. The traditional notebook works well to record plants as long as you note enough of a description to recognise the plant (and why you liked it so much) back at home. There is nothing more frustrating than a list of new plant names each of which might be anything from a small bulb to a forest tree. Digital cameras are very useful for recording new plants especially if you can upload the photographs directly to your own PC. The smart move here is to record the unique timestamp or number of the photograph with the name of the plant so that you can instantly match the picture to the name when you get home. I saw one lady at a recent flower show dispense with the notebook completely and simply take a digital photograph of each plant with the label included.

Take a moment to identify why you like a particular plant. This will help you to refine your own gardening taste as well as making sure that you are not disappointed when you plant one in your own garden. The setting and especially its neighbours makes a big difference to the impact a plant makes. Be sure that you like the specific plant and not the combination planting – in which case you will need to note down and recreate the whole group and not just the eye-catching centre-piece.

Sometimes too, an effect is more significant than the specific plants. For example, any large leaved shrub that turns red in autumn will light up like a stained glass window when the sun sets behind it. Perhaps you could achieve a similar impact with something more easily obtainable and more suited to your soil than that rare specimen in a plantsman’s garden.

Finally, be aware of the differences between your own garden and the one you are visiting because every plant does not suit every garden.

Size. It is probable that your garden is substantially smaller and while small gardens often include large plants, a little care is needed when you select the trees and shrubs that are so important a part of autumn colour. The first question when you choose a tree is “how big will it grow?” A full grown forest tree may look great in an acre of woodland planting but in a 20m suburban garden will take up much of the water, cast shade over the rest of the plot and may eventually start to block light from the house itself or impact the foundations. Better to choose a smaller variety that shares the feature that you liked so much..

Soil. There are two main characteristics of soil that influence which plants will grow happily and you do not have to travel far from home to find a very different kind of soil. So plants that thrive in the garden you visit may struggle to survive when you return home. 1) Acid and Alkaline are the two ends of the pH scale and every soil sits somewhere on a line between them. A good guideline is that soils based on sand and silt tend to be slightly acid and soils based on chalk and clay to be alkaline. Many plants will grow in any decent border soil but some, such as the well known example of Rhododendrons, need a specific level of acidity to thrive. 2) Nature supplies plants for all conditions from ponds and bogs through to sand dunes and some plants are very particular about having dry or constantly damp roots. Once again the type of soil and its look and feel is a good indicator of the water-holding capability. Sand, gravel and chalk let water drain freely leaving the soil dry. Clay and silt become sticky and inhibit drainage, keeping the soil wetter. Understanding the nature of the soil plants are growing in helps you to identify those that will do well in your garden.

Staff. The amount of available manpower is not really a concern for selecting individual plants but is relevant to the quantity, density and type of plants that you use in a garden. Many large gardens open to the public have volunteers as well as a core of full-time staff to maintain them and this opens up labour-intensive possibilities that are beyond most weekend gardeners at home. For example, late summer borders full of tender perennials provide a wonderful extension to the summer season but the plants need to be lifted and brought under glass before the first frost. This may be one task too many for a family already spending autumn weekends raking up leaves and spiking a lawn.

All-in-all there is a huge amount to be learned by visiting autumn gardens and a little more understanding of plants and soils can save you time, money and the frustration of failed plants. So what are you waiting for? Gather up notebook, pencil, camera and wellingtons, wear clothing in layers to account for the variable English weather and head off. At least now you can use ‘horticultural research’ as the reason to stop raking up leaves for just one afternoon. However you will still have to find your own excuse for sampling the homemade cakes in the tea-shop!