October is the month for lawn care

To keep your lawn looking great and prepare it for next year you will want to give it a good top dressing. A good top dressing you can make yourself, half multi purpose compost and half sharp sand. Mix it in a trug or wheel barrow and spread over the entire lawn. I've got into more detail on a previous post about what to do if your lawn suffers from moss.

Make your own suet bird balls

I remember making these at school but no doubt there is an EU directive now stopping kids from carrying this out at school. If you've got children then this is a perfect way of keeping them occupied on a rainy day and getting them interested in wildlife at the same time (and birds absolutely love these).

What you will need.

• Big mixing bowl and spoon
• Saucepan
• Old yoghurt pots or used toilet roll tubes
• Wild bird seed mix
• Suet or lard

1. Melt the lard in the saucepan and add the bird seed mix, you'll want a ratio of 1 part suet to two parts dry mixture. When all the fat is absorbed, put to one side.
2. Take the yogurt pot and put a small hole through the bottom of it and pass the string through, leave plenty of spare at either end as you will need to tie a knot in one end and the other will hang it from the tree.
3. Holding the string in the centre of the pot, start packing the suet mixture into the pot until full to the top.
4. Place in fridge overnight and then once hardened cut off the pot, tie a knot in the string to stop the ball falling off and voila, it's ready to hang from a tree.

Buy and plant daffodils, crocus and tulips soon.

It's that time  when, if you haven't done already you need to get your spring flowering bulbs in the ground, although you can plant successfully up to December (I've never had a problem) for spring flowering, all you will be left with is a very limited choice of bulbs from your local DIY store. Big garden centers such as Syon Park and Chessington are stock to the brim with different bulbs (but not for long).

If you do not have time to trail over to a garden centre then Bloms bulbs carry a huge selection and come with a very good reputation. Bloms Bulbs