The first week of October is a great time to replant, reinvent and restyle your porch and patio planters.

It's late summer and your hydrangea blooms are at their peak. You want to pick them for arrangements, but only if you know how to get a long life out of them.

Mary Keen visits the organically run Chippy Flower Farm in Oxfordshire, set up five years ago and already a great success locally — especially its pick-your-own area. Photographs by Jonathan Buckley.