Your Garden In OCTOBER
YOUR GARDEN IN OCTOBER
October is a beautiful month of autumnal colours and first frosts. Crisp, blue-sky days are the perfect time to tidy up and cut back in the garden. If you grow fruit and veg, there's still plenty to harvest and store for the cold winter months ahead.
Here are some of the main jobs for the month of October
• If your greenhouse is fairly empty, now's a good time to clean and disinfect it. This lets in more light, and prevents pests and diseases over-wintering.
• Protect half-hardy plants with fleece or bring them into a frost-free greenhouse.
• Sweep up any fallen leaves that harbour fungal spores and provide ideal hiding places for slugs and snails. Use them to make leaf mould for the garden.
• Lift and divide any overcrowded herbaceous perennials whilst the soil is still warm.
• Hang any tomato or pepper plants with green fruits upside down indoors to ripen.
• Protect autumn cauliflower heads from frost by wrapping the outer leaves around them and securing with string. Alternatively use a cloche or fleece.
• Cut back yellowing asparagus foliage to within 5cm of the ground.
• Reuse old grow bags by cutting away the top and sowing late salad crops. Cropping can be extended into winter if grown under glass, cloches or polytunnels.
• Move tender plants into the greenhouse to protect them from early frosts. Make sure that there's enough space between to keep them well ventilated and reduce the risk of disease.
• Check any plants which you're bringing inside for pests like aphids.
• Continue to remove any fallen or dead plant material to keep the growing area free of fungal diseases.
• Reuse spent compost from annual container displays as a mulch on the garden.
• Create compost bins for collecting fallen leaves and dead plant material.
• Collect leaves up for making leaf mould as a soil conditioner. Oak, Alder and Hornbeam will rot down in a year but beech, sycamore, horse chestnut and sweet chestnut take a couple of years to compost.
• Start preparing a bonfire with twigs and prunings - cover them with plastic so they remain dry for better burning later. (Be sure to check for hedgehogs before lighting your bonfire)
Thanks to https://www.thompson-morgan.com/what-to-do-in-the-garden-in-OCTOBER
