October
The cold weather has started to set in. It’s misty in the mornings and usually cold and damp until the sun breaks through. October is a time for harvesting and tidying up. Don’t be too neat though – why not leave the odd Sunflower head for the birds. They will appreciate it.
Flower Garden
- Lift and store pelargoniums if necessary
- Protect early flowering chrysanthemums from frost
- Finish bringing in late flowering chrysanthemums
- Clear out summer annuals
- Plant any newly purchased perennials and divide existing perennials
- Continue planting out biennials and spring flowering bulbs
- Plant Lily-of-the valley
- Sow sweet peas
- Thin annual seedlings
- Pot on young plants
- Collect seed from allium seedheads and sow straight away into seed compost
- Plant evergreen shrubs and conifer hedges
- Carefully dig up gladioli corms and overwinter in cool, dry storage conditions
- Lift and pot up tender perennials to protect over winter
- Collect fallen leaves from under rose bushes so they don’t carry diseases over to next year
- Lift and divide congested clumps of perennials
- Plant crocuses and dwarf bulbs in areas of rough grass
- Make sure tall, late-flowering chrysanthemums are well staked
- Divide large clumps of crocosmia and replant into freshly prepared soil
- Spread a thick mulch of compost or bark over the soil around dahlias and agapanthus
Greenhouse
- Sow sweet peas and pinch out the growing tips of seedlings for bushier plants
- Continue harvesting chillies, peppers and other crops
- Reduce watering potted tuberous begonias to allow the top growth to die down
- Bring pots of tender bulbs like agapanthus and eucomis into the greenhouse for the winter
- Let achimene, gloxinia and gloriosa die down in their pots
- Keep potted azaleas constantly moist using rainwater
- Plant bowls with hyacinths and spring bulbs
- Check greenhouse heaters are in working order and that you have fuel in stock
- Pot up roots of lily-of-the-valley to provide fragrant winter flowers
- Sow hardy annuals, like calendulas, in pots for early flowers
Around the Garden
- Clean out bird boxes
- Level out dips in lawns with loam-based compost and sow fresh grass seed
- Clear away debris that could be sheltering slugs and snails
- Check bonfires before lighting, in case they are sheltering sleeping hedgehogs
- Send off for seed catalogues
- Mow lawns during dry weather with blades set high
- Bring garden hoses and sprinklers under cover for winter to avoid damage in freezing weather
- Collect canes and plant supports, and store them in the shed
- Sow a green manure crop over bare areas of ground, to dig into the ground as fertiliser in spring
- Throw a net over branches of holly berries to protect them from hungry birds
