The season of mists is beckoning fast - a wonderful time for autumn tints and harvesting, but mildew can be rather prevalent. Prevention is better than cure, so plant hygiene is crucial to keep borders that still have plenty of colour and interesting seed heads in good condition. Fungal sprays can help, if caught early.

It is time to sum up this year's successes and failures. When creating a garden try to plant month by month rather than doing it in one season, this will ensure borders are vibrant right through till the frosts. Using a digital camera is a fantastic way of recording it all. In the depths of winter it is quite uplifting to review the pictures and especially useful before seed or plant ordering. If you do order plants from a catalogue, take a note of how quickly they are delivered and what condition they are in. I have found enormous variations in quality and value for money.

Cuttings are progressing nicely, as the weather has been warm and damp. It's always exciting to find a new plant emerging from a withered piece of twig. I also put cuttings into established pots, completely forgetting that they are there until autumn, so, sometimes a nice surprise awaits. A reminder to all my garden visitors, who so loved the allium christophii with its enormous metallic ball-like heads that last for ages; the bulbs are starting to appear in garden centres and catalogues and are much cheaper bought now, than individually next May/June.