October Gardening To-Do List
Start autumn digging before the soil gets too wet!
Heavily compacted soil in your garden can lead to poor drainage and make it harder for plants to thrive. Providing good drainage to an area of soil will prevent the area from flooding and improve the overall quality of the ground. Give your flower beds, borders and vegetable patches a good go-over with your spade to upturn the soil. Once upturned, use a garden fork to loosen particles and aerate the soil.Plant up winter containers with pansies, violas and cyclamen.
Our favourite hardy trio – pansies, violas and cyclamen. Fill your containers and hanging baskets with a variety of these flowers and add some colour to your garden for the winter. Make sure to keep them somewhere with plenty of sunshine and pinch off the deadheads as they wilt. Create an uplifting atmosphere in your garden to brighten up those grey, autumnal days to come.Prune climbing roses.
Don’t let your climbing roses become a tangled mess once they start to fade for the winter months. Make sure to give them a thorough looking over and take your time to remove the dead, dying or diseased branches out first. Protect the younger new shoots by making sure they have adequate support to grow when spring arrives.Take tender plants into your greenhouse.
The weather is changing and that all familiar chill is back in the air. Many of the plants in your garden will need a little extra protection over the coming months. If you have tender perennials or plants that are not a fan of the frost, make sure to move them into your greenhouse before the temperatures drop too low. You can even grow some vegetables over winter! Many of your favourite everyday greens are suitable for growing over the winter months in a greenhouse. Why not try some spinach and kale so you can be ready for the inevitable January health kick?Sow broad bean seed.
Get your broad beans started off now by planting the seeds in pots filled with nutritious compost. Broad beans are one of the hardier bean varieties and surprisingly easy to grow. Once the seedlings have grown to around 10cm tall, they should be strong enough to be replanted over to your vegetable patch or into larger pots. Good to harvest from May time, you can look forward to those vibrant spring salads.Harvest and store apples and pears.
As we head into October, you may still have plenty of late-ripening apples and pears growing in abundance. Perfect for puddings, you can prep the fruit for cooking and freeze them off. Alternatively, for the late-ripening fruits, you can also store them away for the months to come. Make sure to only store slightly under-ripe fruits that have no damage or imperfections – as these are likely to rot later on. Wrap each piece of fruit in some newspaper and store them on dimpled trays in a cool, dry place.Stop feeding plants
Unless they are showing signs of lacking nutrients, you will no longer need to add plant feed to your garden. Plant feeding is essential in the spring and summer months, but now is time to give them a break. Be sure to keep an eye on the overall health of your plants and make sure to stay on top of pruning - so your garden can be flourishing next springtime.
