The most obvious task in the autumn months is clearing the leaves especially if they have fallen all over your lawn. Your lawn is still alive and if you let the leaves settle they will not only rot on your grass but are starving the lawn of vital sunlight. So clear them up with a rake or a leaf sucking machine.

The other duties to be done are:

• Take all the summer bedding plants out of borders
• Weed the areas left behind
• Prune trees and hedges (although be careful because they will look like your end result until the spring next year - so some of these tasks are better left until March or April next year)
• Plant winter bedding plants before the ground freezes so they have time to establish themselves
• Put all electrical items away clean and tidy - perhaps put some oil on shears and lawn mowers to stop them rusting

Autumn and winter are sad months for gardeners with most of the tidying up work to be done now. Winter is a non-starter so roll on next year

The flower show at Victoria Part Soutport opens tomorrow.

Based on a ‘Liverpool’ theme, to support the city’s year as European Capital of Culture, the show will feature an array of displays, stands, stalls and entertainment, as well as the odd appearance from a celebrity gardener or two.

Loose Women star Coleen Nolan will open the show at the bandstand at 10am tomorrow, while show patrons Diarmuid Gavin, Stefan Buczacki, Roddy Llewellyn and David Bellamy will be on hand over the four-day event, offering hints and tips to both amateur and professional garden lovers.

Among this year’s treats for green-fingered fans of the show are a Grow Your Own allotments display, courtesy of the National Society of Allotment & Leisure Gardeners, a 4ft by 4ft flower sculpture made of Blu-Tack Pink to raise funds for the Breast Cancer Campaign, a HoneyBee exhibit, with live bees in handling demonstrations (behind glass!) and a series of competitions for budding gardeners.

Tickets to the Flower Show cost £14 in advance, £17 on the day, and £5 after 4pm on the day. Under 16s go in free when accompanied by a ticket-holding adult.

For show tickets visit www.southportflowershow.co.uk or call 0844 847 1555

Pink ‘flowers’ with a message on show in Southport

THOUSANDS of packets of pink Blu-Tack will be used to “stick-it” to breast cancer at the Southport Flower Show.

An array of roses, lilies and forget-me-nots, complete with butterflies, were fashioned out of colourful chunks of the substance to raise money for the Breast Cancer Campaign.

The types of flower represent love, peace and remembrance.

The Flower Show will be the sculpture’s final appearance when Michelle Hayman of Bostik, Blu-Tack’s makers, will present the cancer charity with a cheque for the money raised.

Artists Liz Thompson, 25, whose parents live near Preston, and Edmund Woodward, 24, took weeks to create the display. Bostik commissioned the duo after Liz made a 4ft spider out of Blu-Tack for London Zoo.

Special T-shirts with green message at Flower Show

A SOUTHPORT mum will go green at this year’s Flower Show when she unveils her own line of organic children’s clothes.

Gayle Jones, from Southport Road, will be selling a variety of specially designed T-shirts in a bid to encourage locals to become more eco-friendly.

The 28-year-old, who recently launched her own organic range, Read My Rhyme, designs all the clothes herself, printing self-penned short rhymes and poems on to them.

Gayle, a former Southport College art student, says she hit upon the idea for an organic clothing company when trying to think of ways to teach her two-year-old son, Rhys, about the environment.

TV garden expert Chris Beardshaw was also there amongst the 200 odd stands. The show was set in Sandringham Park with Sandrigham House and Church in the background. Over 20,000 people normally pass through the gates to admire the flower displays and garden designs.

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall spent nearly 2 hours amongst excided crowds for their walk about and studied the flowers, plants and vegetables in the Royal Marquees. Charles also met “Barry the Bee” who warned about the declining population of bees in the UK. He asked Charles to sign a petition but he said he couldn’t but supported what Barry was up to.

All in all a great day out at the Sandringham Flower Show in Norfolk.

The Tatton show in Merseyside opened yesterday but is now open to the public and thousands are expected to join in especially as the weather has improved in recent days.

The show continues to Sunday and tickets can be obtained by phoning the ticket hotline on 0870 247 1223.  The venue is Tatton Park near Knutsford in Cheshire and there’s full coverage from the BBC on TV and radio.

Here is a list of exhibitors and events:

The Floral Design Studio

The Floral Design Studio is dedicated to floral arrangement and floristry. The studio includes the Cheshire Area of NAFAS, colleges and professional florists, all of whom are there to offer information and advice in their areas of expertise.

• NAFAS, The Cheshire Area - Floral arrangement
• Reaseheath College - Floristry & floral design
• Somerset Postal Flowers - Floristry & floral design
• St Helens College - Floristry & floral design
• The Black Rose - Floristry & floral design
• Welsh College of Horticulture  - Floristry & floral design

Arts & Heritage Pavilion

The Pavilion features displays from inspiring artists showcasing their horticultural art and organisations whose work is connected with promoting gardens and gardening.

• A Taste Of Stockport - Information
• Anna Knights Contemporary Botanical Art - Original watercolours & limited edition prints
• Beverley Hewitt Designs - China
• Cardart - Cards & pictures
• Cheng Yan Gallery - Paintings & photography
• Chris Castling Photography - Photographs, greeting cards & bookmarks
• Clare’s Creations - Paintings, cards, prints & coasters
• David Crane Studio - Original paintings & prints
• Douglas Haddow Watercolours - Watercolour paintings
• Fibre - Greeting cards
• Florian Tiles - Ceramic tiles
• Gardens of South Yorkshire - The gardens of South Yorkshire
• Hazel Hetherington - Paperweights
• Jacky Freeman - Paintings of towns & villages in Cheshire
• Jean Knowles Pottery - Hand-made functional stoneware pottery
• John S Gibb - Pencil drawings & prints
• Leaves of Gold - Jewellery
• Lindsay Hill Contemporary Art - Original contemporary art on canvas
• Liz Every - Photographs, canvases & greeting cards
• Sandra Cooper Watercolours - Paintings
• Sheila Gill Fine Art - Paintings, prints & greeting cards
• Silk Painting/Hazel Burrows - Paintings, cards & silk panels
• The Elm Gallery - Paintings, prints, greeting cards & gifts
• The Gem Box - Jewellery
• Thomas Moore Watercolours - Original watercolours & greeting cards
• V & S Ceramics - Ceramics
• Wentworth Castle Trust - Information on the Trust
• Yorkshire Great Houses, Castles & Gardens - Promotion & information on Yorkshire’s great houses, castles & gardens

The RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park set in acres of Cheshire countryside is famous for its friendly atmosphere, vibrant displays and inventive ideas to take home. Bursting with colour and creativity, this entertaining event pushes the boundaries of a traditional gardening show, acts as a platform for fresh design talent and showcases the very best in community gardening.

• 2008 is the 10th anniversary of the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park; so expect to see some extra special displays to celebrate the show’s birthday.
• It’s also the 10th anniversary of the RHS/Ball Colegrave National Flower Bed Competition, where 19 local authorities and colleges show their skills in seasonal bedding.
• For the first time Tatton will be playing host to The British Florist Association Marquee. Watch the action as regional winners produce extravagant displays in both the WorldSkills UK 2008 Floristry Final and the Teleflorist Florist of the Year Competition, enjoy demonstrations and talks and visit the Floral Design Studio to immerse yourself in the beautiful art of floristry and flower arranging.

So get yourself down to the Tatton flower show over the next couple of days and enjoy.

We have developed our garden storage site to show new and exciting gardent storage solutions which is updated with pages to help to store items but as news hits the wires we’ll publish everything on our blog. Please do visit our main website which has the gardening storage items and come back here to the blog for up to date gardening information.