Agnes Stevenson: Summer’s almost over, so now is the time to plan ahead for winter

Wasps and bees are still very much in evidence in her garden says our expert, Agnes Stevenson. But don’t they realise that winter isn’t too far off now?

It’s not often we set out to remove any wildlife that shares our garden, but last week while clearing space beneath the hedge for a new wood store, we removed a wasps’ nest.

Wasps love our garden and while humane deterrents have stopped them nesting in the roof, the garden is still their domain.

Bees too are in abundance, flitting from the spirea to the hardy geraniums and swarming all over the oregano, which has been in flower for weeks now. Oregano is one of my favourite herbs, both for its flavour and for its pillowy shape, so I’ve taken cuttings from non-flowering stems and I’ll plant these out to make more fat, green cushions on the herb wall.

It’s also time too to take cuttings of the tender perennials that won’t survive the winter outdoors. I’ve started on the pelargoniums and I’m moving on to the fuchsias, all of which will spend the cold months on warm windowsills indoors.

Salvias are borderline-hardy, so if you grow Hot Lips, Amistad, or any other varieties of this colourful perennial, take some cuttings now as a guarantee that you’ll still have the plant next year and if you have a greenhouse, it’s worth digging up the plant itself and keeping in a pot over winter.

In September the cold months still seem some way off, but in the last couple of weeks the sun has dipped lower in the sky and now it has slipped beneath the trees at the top of our slope. From now until the beech trees shed their leaves we’ll get less sun in the garden, which means that any rain will hang around and turn the centre of the lawn into a sponge.

Not all of the garden is so wet, however. Under the laurel hedge and among the trees the soil remains dry, even after a downpour, so the shrubs we’ve planted here need regular watering.

The evidence lies with a climbing rose planted last year to sprawl up one of the mature trees. I was neglectful about watering it, so it has put on almost no growth. And it needs to grow if it’s going to reach a height where deer can’t nibble on its tender, young foliage.

Meanwhile, down at ground level, the sanguisorbas are still being stripped by the voles and slugs are still active amongst the cabbages. Also something, and I’m not sure what it is yet, is having a go at the leaves of the magnolia. We may have to raise the canopy on this magnolia as its lower branches will overhang the wood store, but despite the delicate nature of their flowers, the tree are tough as old boots and can take a hard pruning

But would a mature magnolia withstand being moved? There’s one in the front garden that we’d like to relocate, but I’m not sure we are brave enough to try.