Autumn Arrives with Fresh Air and Chores

“With autumn approaching, summer is nearly over, and that means that gardening correspondents all over the country are getting out the article they wrote this time last year and rephrasing it slightly,” opined Miles Kingston back in 1982. Sorry to disappoint you, Miles old bean, but despite suspicions from the editor what follows is as fresh as gardening can ever be. Some things, of course, never change; others mercifully go the way of the editorial blue pencil. ‘Twas ever thus and doubtlessly will remain so as long as we continue in our horticultural – and other – pursuits.