It may sound strange, but September is often considered the start of the gardening year because it is when the planning for next year really begins. Seed catalogues are sent out at this time and clearing of spent summer vegetables starts as well as digging new beds and improving soil once autumn brings rain. (Not that this summer has exactly been without rain!)

It is a great time to consider what there is in your garden that you like, or don’t like and make plans for the next 12 months. Looking at the seed catalogues can help you decide what you would like to try growing next year.

It’s also a good time for planting anything that has been left over from spring including trees and shrubs. Dig a bigger hole than the pot they are in to give them a really good start in aerated soil and feed them with a slow release fertiliser like fish, blood and bone.

From October until March the bare-root trees and shrubs will be sent out from nurseries. If you have ordered any of these prepare the soil now so that when they arrive you can either plant them straight away (if the soil isn’t frozen or saturated) or heel them in until you can put them in their final places.

This morning on the BBC news there was a piece about how councils may be considering asking people to apply for planning permission before they pave over their front gardens to use for parking.

In town the cumulative effect of paving over thousands of front gardens is that heavy rainfall can run straight off paved areas and into drains that may overfill and add to flooding.

There are ways that a new parking space can be created without adding to water run-off if the space is created using new permeable types of paving, designed with gaps that allow water to reach the soil below, or gravel. In fact there have been quite a few gardens created at the shows this year and the last that tackle the problems of combining garden and parking space.