PUMPKINS

St Bridget Nurseries' Garden Centres have some lovely BIG pumpkins for sale. I reckon that you could definitely feed a family for days using the contents and of course then use the pumpkin as a Jack'o'Lantern this Friday for Halloween!

In the office we started to think of all the meals you could make with pumpkin, the favourites being pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie and pumpkin cake but then we started to look around the Internet at recipes and our mouths started to water when we read about...

pumpkin pickle, pumpkin curry, roasted pumpkin seeds, baked pumpkin with apples, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cheesecake even pumpkin bread! With all these ideas one pumpkin will definitely give you a starter, main course and dessert!

Giant pumpkins are £4.99 at St Bridget Nurseries' Garden Centres, Exeter. Call 01392 873672 or 01392 876281 for further details.

GET FRUITY!

Soft fruit plants are now in stock at St Bridget Nurseries' Garden Centres Exeter. Visit either Old Rydon Lane or Sidmouth Rd, Clyst St Mary, Exeter for a great range of raspberries, blackberries, currants, loganberries plus strawberries, gooseberries and blueberries!

Feeling the cold?

Have you put your heating on at home, found you're wearing extra layers? Well the likelihood is if you're feeling cold so are some of your more tender plants. Frosts are likely from this month onwards and so it is a good idea to bring in your tender plants to prevent them from being damaged or being killed. A frostfree shed or garage or conservatory are usually fine.

For plants you can't bring in like palms you can cover them with horticultural fleece or bubble wrap. For particularly tender plants you could even pack some straw inside the fleece.

Both the fleece and bubble wrap are available to purchase from St Bridget Nurseries garden centres.

Leaf Tidying

Picking up leaves may sound tedious but it's very important to your garden. Firstly clear leaves from paths and patios as when the get wet they get very slippery and may cause an accident.

Rake up leaves from your lawn as they block light from reaching your grass which can cause the grass to die off if left covered for too long.

Once you have collected your leaves either place in your composter or bag up in black sacks with a few holes in for air. The leaves will then decompose and create a really beneficial leaf mould which should be added to your soil as an improver next year.

The only place you should not tidy up leaves from are garden borders as the plants tend to trap the leaves there and it acts as a blanket for roots during winter and provides shelter for overwintering creatures.

10% OFF TUESDAYS

Every Tuesday in October (7th, 14th, 21st and 28th) St Bridget Nurseries will give you 10% off all your purchases. The offer is only valid on these October dates and excludes gift tokens, postage stamps, delivery fees and existing orders. Offer is also available at Haven Conservatories (Old Rydon Lane) and at The Coffee House (Clyst St Mary). The offer can not be used in conjunction with any other promotion or price reduction and is only valid on cane furniture from Haven Conservatories.

Indoor Azaleas & Cyclamen

Indoor azaleas and cyclamen are hard to beat for providing colour and a warm, cheery sight on a miserable autumn or winter’s day – but they do need to be cared for if you want the best flowers and a long flowering period. They need a cool position in the house – and certainly well away from radiators and other sources of heat. They also need good light, but not in direct sunlight. Another important success factor is to keep the compost moist at all times – don’t let it become dry or waterlogged. Watering little and often is usually the best way to get good results. When watering cyclamen it’s important that the tuber doesn’t become too wet so we always water from below by standing the pot in a saucer and topping up the water until the top of the compost becomes moist and remember to use lime-free water (rainwater) for azaleas. St Bridget Nurseries in Exeter grow all the cyclamen they sell in their garden centres.