Autumn/Fall Planting - The best time!

Over the years, as garden centres have become more 'commercially minded' - well some of them anyway! - we have seen a gradual drift away from planting shrubs, trees and perennials, from Autumn season to the 'kinder' spring and summer months.
The spring and summer months may be kinder to the person planting, but it is rarely kind to the plant. During the growing seasons, the top foliage canopy is tearing away with new growth and spurred on firstly at the nursery and then the garden centre, by copious feeding and watering of the small container. The plant that you see - ie that bit sticking out of the pot - has been artificially grown by cropping methods which are somewhat similar to factory farming to be blunt! (Artificially fed, and grown in a restricted space! Sounds familiar?)
Take this plant out of it's highly controlled environment and plant it into an alien situation, and you have stress! The top of the plant (Which is basically the bit that you bought) will still want to grow, but will rarely have a good (large) enough root system to sustain it. And in any event it will take months for the constrained root system to work its way out into the surrounding soil.
It will need regular watering, and will probably be quite relieved once autumn/fall has arrived so that it can at last have a rest and get itself sorted out.
Plant in the autumn, whilst the soil is still warm enough for the root system to take a wander and the top foliage canopy is less demanding on its requirements from the root system, and you will have a much better chance of success. Together with this, you can virtually 'forget' about the plant until the first buds break in the spring. At this time the plant will have established itself a good root system, and reward you with good health growth that will not need too much attention, other than in draught situations.

Wild Birds - Tame Birds?

Wild Birds - Tame Birds.

I've just had a nice stroll (lurk) around a wildlife reserve here in Kent. All very nice, especially the sunshine after that wretched day before yesterday (Fri 6th Oct).
Plenty of fowl (ducks, geese, etc) on the lakes, and partner even saw a kingfisher - I was busy trying to get a damselfly to sit still for a photgraph.
One thing struck me. The silence!
OK, so the duck, geese, and coots were having a go, out on several lakes, but in the substantial woodland; Nowt!
Very overgrown woodland that should have been home to a few non waterfowl-type birds. The likes of Finches, Tits, Blackbirds, Sparrows even, but not a sausage, and this was an hour long stroll through lush woodland!
I suppose if I were a wild bird - or a tame one for that matter - I would have opted for the nearby mass of cultivated gardens, where I would not have needed to search for a few measly insects or try to digest crusty Buddlejah seeds. In many gardens these days, i would have been almost hand fed with seeds various, and titbits of all manner, hung out on strings, stuck on platforms, or even strewn about on lawns.
Why should I bother being a wild bird, when I can so easily opt for being a tame bird - fed upon fat-encrusted seed goodies - or even the odd meat titbit and the like.
I just wonder if we are being just a little too kind to our feathered friends. Of course, there are many vested interests out there who would have us believe that to 'feed the birds' is the right thing to do. I wonder?

hello And welcome

Hi there
Welcome to my daily (hopefully!) blog. If anyone thinks that things gardening are boring, then be prepared to be mistaken. I intend this blog to be an eye-opener. For it to be so, I will need some good postings from you all. Don't just sit there wondering. Be!
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