Box Blight Rescue at Longmeadow and Sussex Prairie Planting

At Longmeadow, box hedges face major surgery while Carol explores a vast prairie garden in Sussex, and James Wong helps grow animal feed at Bristol Zoo. We open in the velvet season at the turn of August to September, when late-summer light makes deep reds, purples and ochres glow. In the dry garden, spent Verbascum olympicum are cleared and replaced with Verbascum gamespera, with a reminder that verbascums thrive in poor, stony soil. For autumn colour, Stunbergia lutea bulbs are planted now to flower in October, needing full sun, reflected warmth and excellent drainage. Carol visits a spectacular prairie-style garden in Sussex where Pauline and Paul McBride planted eight acres with more than 30,000 robust perennials and grasses. She highlights generous swathes of planting, movement from grasses, and combinations featuring miscanthus, calamagrostis, Eupatorium maculatum and sedums. Key prairie principles emerge: choose plants that suit your conditions, plant in bold numbers, and let self-seeders find their partners. James Wong heads to Bristol Zoo to see a fresh take on grow your own. With head horticulturist Eddie Mole at the nursery site Wild Place, he collects chicory for giant tortoises, bamboo for red pandas, hedichium leaves and spent sunflower heads that keep drill monkeys busy. The aim is enrichment, variety and fresh, homegrown extras for many species. Back at Longmeadow, it has been a tough tomato year with slow ripening and split fruit due to irregular watering or erratic temperatures. Tips include defoliating to focus ripening, watering no more than weekly and using liquid feed. It is still time to sow turnips like Snowball after peas, thin evenly, harvest at golf-ball size and glaze with butter for sweetness. Grapes faced raids from blackbirds and wasps - a sharp learning curve. Box blight is tackled head-on: set a string line and use a spirit level, cut with a slight batter so lower growth gets light, disinfect tools, and clear every scrap of debris into sealed bags for disposal. Quick jobs: sow winter salads, pinch out wallflowers, and take evergreen hedge cuttings such as yew. Figs, including brown turkey, can ripen in cool summers - lift drooping fruit to test for ripeness. Primary keyword: box blight Secondary keywords: Longmeadow, prairie planting, Bristol Zoo, hedge cutting, turnips Search intent: Find practical fixes for box blight, prairie planting ideas, and late summer jobs to do now. #GardenersWorld #BoxBlight #PrairiePlanting #Longmeadow #BristolZoo #AutumnGardening #GrowYourOwn