SEASONAL INSPIRATION
Autumn is the gardener’s cue to tidy up and take stock, inspiring a range of pretty but practical makes
SEASON finalé
The year is waning and it’s time to prune, clip and clear up, gathering armfuls of autumn colour as you go. Terracotta pots and earthenware vases are perfect for displaying your fiery blooms and berried branches.
DECORATIVE SEED SAVERS
Harvest seeds from vegetable crops and save them in envelopes decorated with bespoke lino prints: they will make original gifts for green-fingered friends and family.
TOOL tidies
Fashion a simple container for all your bits and bobs out of two old tins. Sand down any sharp edges, then tie tightly together around the middle with twine in a figure of eight and securing with a knot. Apply a paint compatible with metal and allow to dry before use.
Shed QUARTERS
Rich velvets, fine prints, botanical artwork and classic country furniture can turn a rustic garden shed into a boho-style hideaway – perfect for catching the last rays of the maturing sun.
FLORAL KNEELER
A stylish portable cushion will ensure weeding and planting is much kinder to your knees.
BLAZE OF GLORY
Catch a falling leaf and make a pretty display with autumn’s burnished beauty.
THE LAST HURRAH
The hot colours of dahlias bring a dramatic final flourish before the curtain falls on another year in the garden.
DESIGN-A-LABEL
Mark rows of autumn plantings using pieces of thin bark (papery silver birch is ideal) fashioned into labels.
Isla Middleton Autumn foraging poster (on wall), £22, The Danes. On chair: Red twine, £10.95/90m, Nutscene. Wicker hamper, £12, Hobbycraft. Cushion cover made from Fuchsia red cotton, £85/m, Colefax and Fowler; and Dorton Antique Gold velvet, £55/m, Sanderson. Cotton quilts, £59.95 each, The Danes. Can tidy painted in Canton Intelligent eggshell, £37/L, Little Greene. Antique rose and yellow velvet ribbons, £5.50/3m, The Danes. Jute twirly twine, £2.50/75m, Nutscene. Garden tags in trug made from 90cm plant-support canes, £1.50/ten, Wilko; and silver birch bark, £5.80/ten, Hobbycraft. Secateurs, £38, Labour and Wait. Wallpapers, from a selection, 1838 Wallcoverings
SEASON FINALÉ
Leaf rake, £15.95, B&Q. Rustic hessian sacks (on folding chair and trestle table), £11.50; red twine, £10.95/90m: both Nutscene. Vintage trestle table, £235, Vinterior. Short olive green dinner candles (in vintage pot
