I’ve planted plants in autumn in the past and found it to work really well. So I was curious about the merits of planting in autumn and asked someone more knowledgable than I, Amy of Villaleigh Plants who is based in the Waikato for some guidance. Here are her thoughts. Amy also runs an online nursery which sells a wonderful selection of plants which will be ready to plant now.

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Welcome to a new series where I take a moment to have a chat with people I admire in the gardening community. For me the garden community is a special one and I wanted to take a moment to celebrate the magical people I have met along my gardening journey.

Susie Ripley is the creator of Susie Ripley Gardening, a wonderful space for garden products and inspiration. Susie is a knowledgeable and creative gardener who is generous in sharing what she knows. I recommend following her on Instagram to pick up helpful ideas and her feed is filled with beautiful images of the seeds and dahlias she sells. For me personal Susie has been a champion not just for myself but other creatives connected to gardening. She is always encouraging and always support. I am forever grateful for that.

I hope you enjoy this interview. Sign up for my paid newsletter for part two where Susie will talk about her Autumn seedling plans.

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Susie, tell us about your garden?

My garden is my playground, my creative outlet, my place to connect with nature and come back to myself. It's not something to ever be finished, it will be ever evolving as I am.  Although I share many photos of my garden, my garden is just for me. I don’t have the desire to share it with many, I never want to feel like it must be tidy and perfect and ready for show.  As much as I love to sit back and marvel at what is growing and take in the success or failure of my planting schemes, for me the greatest joy comes from getting dirty and amongst it. I love building new soil and watching the critters break things down, shoveling the compost I’ve made. I get great satisfaction from looking at the garden when it’s thriving and knowing that it’s the healthy soil I have helped create making it thrive.

Do you have a garden style?

I have a loose style which is a mix of wild cottage with elements of structure and repetition. I have several areas of garden and I’m trying to create a different feel in each. It’s more formal and calmer at the front and the large back yard has a meadow feel and is a riot of colour. My current garden is very new and just over a year old, so a lot of structure is yet to come. It’s been temporarily taken over by my small dahlia ‘farm’ for this year’s tuber supply. 

Did you start your garden with a set vision as to what it would look like?

I rarely have a set vision. I just start planting key plants and let things evolve. I love slowly building a garden and moving plants around until I’m satisfied. So much of the joy I get from gardening is playing, moving plants, finding colours and textures that I like together. It’s taken a while to figure out how to use my backyard, where I like to sit, how the sun sits, so beds have changed around as that has become clearer.

I did plan my verge garden. It’s in a public space so I wanted to get it planted and growing quickly. I enjoyed the process though I didn’t get all the plants right. Many succumbed to the wind and a few turned their toes up in the heavy soil which needs a whole lot more compost added. That will be a job for winter and spring.

Tell us a bit about your business Susie Ripley Gardening.

It's an evolving business and I am currently focused on sourcing and selling seeds for hard-to-find plants and plants I love to grow. It started with my gardening obsession and wanting plants I’d seen in Europe on my travels but couldn’t get here.

How do you manage to keep your business out of your time in the garden or is it a happy blend of your business inspiring your garden and vice versa?

It’s very much intertwined and I do find I need to have some time away to switch off from it all. My garden leads the business, however this year growing dahlias for the business has taken over. I needed every inch of space so I could grow tubers for this year's supply as importing was not an option.

What is your favourite time of the gardening year?

I love autumn. The light is beautiful, the dahlias are flowering, and I can sit back and just take it all in. I like to spend the season thinking about what plants I want to add, what seeds to sow, and which plants to divide and create more of.

What is your favourite gardening read?

Dream Plants for the Natural Garden by Henk Gerritsen and Piet Oudolf. It’s a reference book but it is written with humour, and is fantastic for learning about what conditions plants thrive in. It has handy sections like Capricious Plants and Troublesome Plants which I’ve found invaluable.

What is the best gardening tool that you have?

It has to be my golden Niwaki Spade. I spend a lot of time digging and it's wonderfully light and the perfect height for me. I find many high-quality tools at hardware stores are made for men and are harder and more tiring to use. Niwaki make many items in two sizes, and I love that.

What is your favourite go to plant which you would love to see more people growing?

I would love to see more people growing what they like. Not following trends or sticking to green and white because it’s safe. I want people to have fun and be brave with colour and plant choices. Play with plant and colour combinations until it’s how they want it.

What is the best gardening advice that someone has given you?

Get the soil right first!

Name a garden that you would like to visit and why?

Piet Oudolf's field at Hauser and Wirth art gallery and garden in Somerset, UK. Fortunately, I’ll be visiting it later this year. I want to experience what it feels like being in one of his gardens or ‘fields’. A lot of perennials we sell the seeds for are planted en masse here and I can’t wait to see that in person.

Name a gardener that inspires you?

I glean so much from many amazing gardeners. A lot I’ve found through Instagram, but my good friend Violet Faigan really inspires me the most. Her plantings are a work of art and so true to her. I love that she plants what she loves in the way she wants it. We are all influenced by what we see others do, and it’s great to incorporate other ideas, but I really admire people who do it their own way, and not to a prescribed plan. Everyone has a different garden ‘canvas’ to work with and so everyone’s garden should vary to suit. Your soil type, amount of drainage, and how much sun and heat you get should guide what you plant.

What are your garden goals for the coming garden year?

To keep working on creating intimate spaces, little nooks to sit in and enjoy it all. This means planting a lot more trees and shrubs.

Name a dream plant that you love that you would love to have in your garden?

I really want to have some Foxtail lilies, eremurus. I have sourced seeds and I’m going to try germinating them soon. Fingers crossed I’ll have some next summer.

All the photos in this newsletter are from Dahlias that Susie grows and sells. For more Susie sign up to her newsletter by hitting subscribe via her website.

Autumn is starting to make it’s presences known and I thought it was time to highlight a few plants that are supporting the bees in the garden at the moment. The focus for the bees has moved from honey harvest (summer) to building the hives supplies for the winter. Gardens can offer a huge support in this activity and I must admit the garden has been busy of late. So here are 5 plants that my bees are loving in the garden right now.

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Eutrochium Maculatum

or as a Instagram buddy informed me Cristal crisp which seems like a great name for this. It is my first year having this one in the garden and it stands tall in one of my trial bed - the old veg garden,( trial bed sounds fancier than it is, in short it means I am running out of space in the garden). This is a beautiful plant and such a lovely colour and I can wait to use it in future gardens. I have other Eutrochium in the garden but this deep crimson is my favourite. I had noticed the bees on it a number of times and I was so excited to watch bees, bumbles and butterflies enjoying it together in the weekend. It is a tall plant and would work well in the back of a bed providing quiet support in the background and much needed bee food as we head into Autumn.

Sedum

If there was one bee friendly plant that I would suggest growing it is sedum. It is an easy grow and the bees are mad for it. I have what I call little forests of it sprinkled through out the garden and as other focal flowers start to fade towards the end of summer this one provides some added colour to the flower beds. It thrives in poor soil and is easy to divide - simply break a stem off and plonk it in a glass of water, you will have roots sprouting in no time. Medium sized plant and one that looks stunning growing in a mass.

Cosmos

Cosmos is more a summer flower but I’ve included it as it is one that continues on and on and on if you do one bee friendly gardening tip. Deadhead. Deadheading plants that are bee friendly encourages further flowering and extending the season which I love - more flowers for me to admire but it also offers more variety for bees as we head to winter. Bees are like humans and need a varied diet so keep on top of the dead heading to encourage your annuals such as cosmos to keep flowering.

Echinops

My echinops have been amazing this summer. I have planted a few over the years and they are now established plants and boy did they enjoy the dry weather. It is one I would call a super bloom and much like the first two plants on my list I often seem them covered in bees. Most echinops are blue, a favourite colour of bees but I have added a white one this year which I might take the seed from and have an attempt to grow from seed. I do tend to leave the seed heads in the garden as they look lovely as we headed to autumn with their structural flower heads fading from blue to grey. Another medium sized plant height wise.

Herbs

I grow a lot of herbs in the garden using them as a background plant as they do tend to have interesting and beautiful foliage that comes in various shades of green and silver. I’ve planted herbs in masses, often in one bed adding in focal plants and I have found this season they have kept the garden going, flowering well despite the dry summer. Herbs for me are a quick win and for bees a favourite. Pictured above is a mint but I’ve seem masses of bees on lemon balm, orengo, rosemary to name a few. You do need to do your homework on spread, because some, such as this mint will take off in your garden if not kept in check.

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Most days my flowering sea holly have a number of bees on them. Sea holly or Eryngium offer a good source of nectar. The colour of sea holly also helps attract bees, as they do have a preference for blue coloured flowers. Sea holly comes in a number of shades of blue as well as white and are a rather structural plant adding some height and drama to your garden. Also little pops of colour. Bees when foraging will tend to focus on one particular plant at a time. Sea holly are great as they have multiple flower heads that form the ball shape which means many little pots of nectar for the bees. This is called a composite flower head. You will often find bees on one flower for a long time moving around - this is why. They are collecting as much nectar as they can in one go. Sea holly is a perennial which loves a dry spot as well and will provide beautiful seed heads when the flowers start to turn making it a lovely architectural element to the garden in autumn. It can be grown from seed but I think requires more skill than I have so I mainly plant my as small plants.

Teasel is one I suggest you plant with caution. In my earlier years as a gardener I very excitedly grew teasel from seed and sprinkled them around the garden. Nothing much happened in the first year. The second year I had blooms everywhere. The bees love them so I was happy. Roll round a couple of years later and I have teasels popping up all over the place. Namely in cracks stubborn growing and while I admire their tenacity I do not admire their attempts to quietly take over the garden. A number have been removed as a result and I will aim to do some serious removal of seed heads when the time comes. So yes plant these wonderful bee friendly plants but be warned they are prolific self seeders. They are also like the echinops in that they are in the colour spectrum that bees love (lavender purple), the main flower head is made up of a number of smaller flowers brimming with nectar and if you dare, they provide that beautiful garden interest in autumn when the seed heads form. The birds love them. Easily grown from seed and tend to be happy in most places in the garden.

Yarrow is a favorite of mine. I’ve taken a lot of photos of it and find it endlessly inspiring. You can read more about my thoughts on photographing yarrow in this newsletter post. Yarrow is an easy to grow plant and better yet it is easy to divide in you want more or you spy one you would like from your friend garden. They can grow to be a tall plant so look good in the back of a flower bed adding pops of colour. They can provide a sea of colour if you mass plant them. Mass planting is a great thing to do as it saves time for the bees if the plant they are foraging are in one spot. Like echinops and teasle yarrow is made up of multi flower heads, again providing that much desired nectar at this time of year. The formation of the multi flower is different to echinops as you can see the individual flower heads more clearly. Left to go to seed it is another lovely structural plant that adds some character to your garden in autumn. Also loves a dry spot.

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Dahlias are a firm favourite for many gardeners with most loving the multi petal versions. For me my preference is for the single blooms as they are a more bee friendly dahlia. The reason for this is that it is easy access to what the bees are looking for, in this case pollen. Pollen is important to a hive as it is used to make their food and feeds the young baby bees. While important it is not foraged as much as nectar at this time of year. My rule of thumb when looking at dahlia varieties which I wish to add to my garden to help support my bees is to see if I can see the pollen. If I can then the bees will as well. With different breeds of dahlia things like the pollen are lost to petals as the flower is breed for prettiness not necessarily functionality. If you dead head your dahlias regularly you can keep them blooming from summer into autumn providing a good food source for bees as they switch from harvesting nectar in the summer to preparing the hive for winter. You can also save seeds from dahlias and grow them yourself. I tried this this year and had a number come through to plants. The fun bit is that they do not grow true to their parent plant so you do not know what you will get.

Masterwort is slowly starting to fade in the garden. I’ve dead headed what I can to encourage a second blooming, hopefully it will start soon and provide a source food for my bees. It is a composite flower - again that multi flower head that provides many sources of nectar for bees. It grows well in a semi-shaded part of the garden. I love how it fills in gaps in the garden, spreading and intertwining with other plants creating that tapestry look that I so love. It tends to start flowering in late spring so it is a good plant to help a hive build in size and strength as the approaching summer comes. It’s comes in various shades of pink from pale to dark and I believe there is also a white version as well. It is a firm favourite of mine and looks wonderful if you wish to dry the flower heads.

I hope you have enjoyed what I have shared here. Please sign up for my newsletter and if you can a paid subscriptions means I have the financially support to do what I love which is build my garden for my beloved bees and share it with you.

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