October gardening guide
Autumn is in full swing and with it comes a beautiful spectrum of colour. Autumn perennials add their rich hues to the borders, along with the dainty, starry flowers of late clematis varieties. Winter flowering shrubs are stirred into action and many berries are hanging onto branches long after the leaves have coloured and fallen. Hazelnuts and acorns are ripening, bringing foraging squirrels and jays to the garden looking for food. Days are getting colder and shorter but there is still a lot of planting to be done in October before winter sets in.
Checklist
- Clean down your patio and garden furniture and cover or store them away if you think they won't get used again
- Aerate the lawn to improve drainage and brush sharp sand into the holes
- If you wish to move a shrub or conifer to another part of the garden, dig up as large a root ball as possible and water in well
- Plant out autumn onion sets in to firm beds of soil. Garlic can also be planted towards the end of the month
- Complete winter digging on heavy soils by the end of October
- Plant out spring cabbages
- Plant winter flowering pansies and violas in beds and pots for spots of winter colour
- Wrap up tender plants like tree ferns and banana plants with fleece or straw before the first frosts of the year
- When raking, leave some leaf piles under a hedge or in a border, to provide a habitat for wildlife and insects
- Finish pruning and training rambling roses by cutting out some of the old wood that has flowered and tying in young shoots
Planting
- Re-pot any shrubs and trees that have outgrown their containers by gently teasing out some of the roots and using fresh compost with a long lasting fertiliser
- Continue to plant up bulbs in containers, planting them in two or three layers to create pots full of colour for next spring
- Plant out wallflowers, sweet william, forget-me-nots and polyanthus which will flower next spring, applying a base dressing of bone meal or fish, blood and bone before planting
- Take hard wood cuttings of shrubs, climbers and fruit bushes
- Save seeds of summer flowering annuals before clearing away the remains to the compost heap
Maintenance
- Clean the glass in your greenhouse and line it with bubble wrap to provide insulation through the winter
- Rake leaves from borders as they fall and add them to your compost heap
- Keep off the lawn when it is very wet or the grass is frozen
- Re-cut or repair lawn edges that have broken
Top Tips
Rake leaves from the lawn regularly as the grass will turn yellow and may die if leaves are left lying.
Wildlife and pests
- Leave seed heads on some of your perennials as food for birds and small mammals
- Create a log pile for newts and toads to overwinter in amongst an area of long grass. The grass will also attract birds that like to hunt for worms
- Plant some late flowering perennials for pollinating insects that will still be on the wing
Harvesting
- Pick the last of your tomatoes from the greenhouse and ripen them indoors if frost threatens. Green tomatoes can still be used in the kitchen to make chutney
- Harvest main crop potatoes and store those that are not damaged in a cool, dark place. Gently brush off excess soil but do not wash them, this helps them to keep for longer
- Harvest apples, pears, grapes and nuts
