Spring bulbs are filling the shelves at garden centres and DIY stores already! It’s hard to resist the bargain prices you can pay for a large net bag of daffodils, crocus or tulips at this time of year, but it does feel a little early to be planting them now.

Tulips especially are best left until November as this will greatly reduce the risk of the bulbs being infected with soil-borne fire blight – it’s just too cold for the virus to do any harm by that stage in the calendar.

Rather than impulse buy your bulbs in the next week or so, I think it a better idea to use the DIY store displays for inspiration, then go home and get online to buy top quality bulbs for delivery next month or in October, from specialist suppliers such as www.unwins.co.uk. 

Not only will your bulbs appreciate this later planting, there are so many other garden jobs to be done in the next few weeks, so why make life hard for yourself? In going to the specialists for your bulbs you’ll also have a much wider choice of cultivars to choose from. The colchicum bulbs I’m pictured planting are often called ‘Naked Ladies’ due to their habit of throwing their (naked) flowers stalks in autumn with foliage finally following in spring.

Reaching September it’s time to start thinking about lawn maintenance for the season. Most lawns have put on lush growth this year thanks to all the rain so it’s worth applying an autumn feed after a few timely maintenance jobs, but I’ll cover these in coming weeks. For now, spend some time online researching the bulbs you want to plant out next month and beyond, for spring colour in 2013.