The Government is hoping to steer the public to use more environmentally friendly products in their gardens. From October 2008, home owners in England must apply for planning permission if they want to pave their front garden with an impermeable material, such as asphalt. Planning permission is not required if you use a porous or permeable product  which will reduce flooding and its subsequent damage.

Visit www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/686153 for more details.

Tips for September

• Plants for September – Viburnum opulus ‘Compactum’ (red berries and tinted leaves), Imperata cylindrical ‘Rubra’ (Japanese blood grass), Eryngium x tripartitium, Acer palmatum ‘Osakazuki’ and Caryopteris clandonensis.
• Take cuttings of bedding plants like pelargoniums, petunias, marguerites, fuchsias and osteospermums, before the first frosts.
• Prepare tender perennial like dahlias and fuchsias for over-wintering.
• Plant and divide hardy perennials.
• Collect and sow ripe seed.
• Take cuttings of roses.
• Save and sow seeds from rose hips.
• Plant bulbs outdoors for next spring and summer.
• Force hyacinths indoors for Christmas.
• Take out weeds and ‘thatch’ from lawns.
• Store squashes for winter.
• Prepare onions for lifting and plant new sets.
• Plant and sow spring cabbages.

Allotment growing www.allotment.org.uk

Royal Horticultural Society www.rhs.org.uk

Society of Garden Designers www.sgd.org.uk