Plant this
The purple bottlebrush flowers of Liatris spicata brighten sunny borders in late summer and attract pollinators into the bargain. This North American native looks at home in a prairie planting scheme, matched with echinaceas, coreopsis and grasses. Height and spread 150cm x 50cm, although the more compact cultivar ‘Kobold’ is just 50cm tall. There’s the white version, ‘Alba’, too.
Harvest this
Got fruit to harvest? Hold an apple or pear in your hand and gently lift – if the fruit comes away from the branch, it’s ready. Keep the grass short under trees so it’s easy to spot windfalls: promptly remove from the ground or the tree any fruit that’s brown with white furry patches, and bin it to prevent the spread of the fungal disease brown rot. No trees of your own? Visit abundancenetwork.org.uk to find your local fruit-sharing group.
Visit this
If you’re not an opera buff, you won’t know how special the gardens at Glyndebourne in East Sussex are. They’re not usually open to the public, but 10 September is a chance to explore the sculpture trail, rose garden and borders packed full of beautiful plants. Tickets £10, 11am-4pm, glyndebourne.com.
