Top tips, gardening news, Plant of the Week and a petrol lawn mower competition
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SAVE: THE leaves have started falling. Get Dunelm’s heavy-duty long-handled leaf grabber for £40, or a £9.99 Woodside version from outdoorvalue.co.uk.
WIN! WE are giving one lucky reader a Vonhaus petrol lawn mower worth £172.99 and a Vonhaus electric hedge trimmer worth £39.99.
For a chance to win, visit thesun.co.uk/mowercomp or write to Jattvibe Vonhaus Mower competition, PO Box 3190, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8GP.
Include your name, age, email or phone. Entries close 11.59pm, September 26, 2026. UK residents 18+ only. T&Cs apply
PLANT OF THE WEEK! HEMEROCALLIS or Crimson Pirate is a hardy, resilient day lily that likes most soils. Remember each flower only lasts a day.
Get 20 per cent off at thompson-Morgan.com/sunoffers. T&Cs apply.
VISIT: KIDS are being invited to take part in a mass singalong to raise funds for butterfly conservation this month.
Sing2Save will see pupils from more than 200 schools and children’s choirs learn a specially composed song and perform it in the week beginning September 21. Find out more at sing2save.org.
TOMATO IS SNOUT OF LINE: FELLOW allotment holder Kate Hunt alerted me to her very strange-looking tomatoes.
Physiotherapist Kate found two tomatoes with odd “growths”.Research revealed they are “tomato noses” and form as a result of a minor cell division mutation during the fruit’s microscopic stage.
And this happens because of – you guessed it – abnormally high temperatures. Some of my toms have developed unsightly sores on their bottoms.
Not – thank GOD – tomato blight. Instead, it’s blossom end rot.
This won’t spread but it is best to pick off the affected tomatoes so the plant stops wasting energy on them.
Blossom end rot appears when the weather changes from bone dry to soaking wet, causing calcium deficiency.
THIS WEEK’S JOB: DIVIDE summer perennials to multiply stock. Take cuttings of tender plants to overwinter indoors, and sow winter cover crops.
TIP: AUTUMN soil is warm and perfect for leafy greens, while cooler air stops them bolting. Try spinach, winter lettuce, rocket, and chard.
You’ll get a quick autumn harvest from rocket and lettuce, while kale and chard provide winter pickings.
SAVIOUR SALVIAS: SALVIAS have been true survivors this summer, and there’s one man who knows all about them.
William Dyson, curator of Great Comp Garden, near Sevenoaks, Kent, is an RHS award-winning expert on the blooms.
He will be at the garden’s annual Focus on Salvias weekend, from September 26-27.
Offering a glimmer of hope to gardeners who have experienced one of the trickiest summers in living memory, he will be joined by senior gardener Kristyna Kay-Clough to answer visitor questions.
There will also be lots of salvias for sale. See greatcompgarden.co.uk.
