GARDENING GUIDE OCTOBER
Care & advice for your October garden
We’re into the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
The days are getting shorter and there’s definitely a nip in the air! October is one of the most beautiful months of the year, but it’s also a busy one for gardeners as it’s time to start the ‘Big Clear Up’ ready for the winter months.
There’s plenty of preparation to be done for next year, with spring bulbs to plant, final lawn care to tackle, and winter vegetables to get into the ground. Here’s your quick guide to those must-do jobs in the garden in October.
Essential Jobs for October
Plant
Spring Bulbs
✔ There’s still time to plant daffodils, bluebells, crocuses and other spring bulbs. Plant drifts of bulbs in your lawn where they can naturalise and spread, creating a beautiful woodland
effect.
Plant
Shrubs & Trees
✔ Now’s the ideal time to plant new shrubs and trees, or to move existing ones, giving them time to settle in over winter
Plant
Protection
✔ Wrap delicate plants such as tree ferns and bananas in garden fleece to protect them from frosts, and move citrus trees and other tender plants into the greenhouse.
Lawn
Care
✔ Rake leaves off lawns so that the winter sunlight can reach the grass. Store the leaves in piles or bags to break down into leafmould, a superb soil improver.
Feed the
Birds
✔ Top up bird baths and fill bird feeders with energy-rich winter foods like peanuts, sunflowers and suet balls.
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Flower Beds & Borders
Divide overgrown
perennials
✔ Lift and divide overgrown clumps of perennials like hostas and daylilies
Clear fallen
rose leaves
✔ Clear fallen rose leaves to reduce the spread of black spot and other fungal spores. Burn the leaves or put them in your council green waste collection bin, not on your compost
heap.
Prune climbing
roses
✔ Prune climbing roses, and cut tall shrub and bush roses back by a third to reduce wind rock over winter.
Vegetables & Fruits
Harvest
Pumpkins
✔ Harvest pumpkins and squash before the frosts turn them mushy
Cut down
Beans
✔Once you’ve harvested all your French and runner beans, cut the plants down at ground level, leaving the roots in the ground to release nitrogen back into the soil.
Harvest
Potatoes
✔ Harvest any remaining maincrop potatoes.