What to do during October in your garden and greenhouse.
Your monthly gardening checklists
Flowers
- Plant drifts of spring bulbs informally in a lawn, including crocuses, daffodils and snake's-head fritillaries
- Lift tender cannas to avoid frost damage, dry off the tubers and store in cool dark conditions until spring
- Plant up cheery pot displays with winter colour, such as heathers, cyclamen, winter pansies and skimmia
- Lift and pot up tender perennials, such as chocolate cosmos, gazanias and coleus, to protect over winter
- Plant evergreen shrubs and conifer hedges while the soil is still warm
- Remove any pot saucers and raise pots up onto feet to prevent waterlogging over winter
- Transplant deciduous shrubs that are in the wrong place or have outgrown their current position
- Wrap layers of fleece or straw around banana plants and tree ferns to protect from frost
- Collect seeds from hardy perennials, such as astrantia, achillea and red valerian, and sow straight away
- Take hardwood cuttings from ornamental trees and shrubs
- Reduce the height of shrub roses to avoid windrock damage over winter
- Empty spent summer pots and hanging baskets, and compost the contents
On the forum: share your growing tips with other gardeners and ask for advice
Hardwood cuttings
Prepare hardwood cuttings
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Fruit and veg
- Take cuttings of shrubby herbs, such as rosemary, lemon verbena and thyme
- Remove large fruits on fig trees that have failed to ripen, leaving pea-sized fruits to develop for harvesting next year
- Sow green manure, such as winter rye, rather than leaving soil bare over winter
- Cover salad plants with cloches to prolong cropping
- Keep sowing batches of hardy broad beans and peas outdoors for early crops next year
- Plant garlic cloves in a sunny well-drained spot, 15cm apart, with their tip 5cm below the surface
- Finish picking runner beans and French beans, but leave a few pods to ripen fully, so you can save the seeds
- Cut down the ferny shoots of asparagus to soil level once they've turned yellow, then add to the compost bin
- Divide large clumps of herbs, such as chives, lemon balm and marjoram, then replant or share with friends
- Wrap grease bands around the trunks of apple, pear, cherry and plum trees to trap the crawling female winter moth
- Clear away old crops, so they can't harbour pests and diseases on the veg plot through the winter
- Cut fruited stems of blackberries and autumn raspberries down to the ground
- Raise pumpkins and squash onto bricks to keep them dry and expose them to more sun, to ripen the skins
- Order bare-root fruit trees and bushes for planting from late autumn to early spring
- Plant out spring cabbages
On the forum: which fruit and veg varieties are you growing?
Greenhouse
- Clean out the greenhouse to get rid of debris that can harbour overwintering pests and diseases
- Wash greenhouse glazing to let in as much of the weaker autumn daylight as possible
- Bring potted tropical plants inside, including bananas, pineapple lilies (eucomis) and brugmansias
- Plant hippeastrum (amaryllis) bulbs in pots on a warm windowsill for flowers by Christmas
- Move potted citrus plants and fuchsias inside over winter, keeping them cool but frost free
- Sow quick-growing microgreens, such as kale and mustard, for nutrient-rich pickings in just a few weeks
- Line greenhouse glazing with bubble insulation, as night-time temperatures start to drop
- Keep indoor azaleas constantly moist, ideally using rainwater
- Pot up the roots of lily-of-the-valley to provide fragrant winter flowers indoors
- Water plants more sparingly as conditions turn cooler and the days get shorter
- Sow sweet peas in deep pots for early flowers next summer
- Plant prepared narcissus bulbs for fragrant indoor blooms in about 10 weeks
- Spread out harvested onions and garlic on greenhouse staging to dry thoroughly before storing
- Inspect plants you bring into the greenhouse over winter for any pests and diseases
- Attach guttering to the greenhouse and install a water butt, to make good use of autumn rain
- Clear fallen leaves from greenhouse guttering to ensure water butts fill up
Give water butts a good clean and ensure they are free from obstructions
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Garden maintenance
- Rake up fallen leaves from lawns, borders, driveways and paths, and store in bin bags to rot down into leafmould
- Build a log pile at the back of a border for wildlife to shelter in
- Check that your shed is secure and waterproof, so you can safely store tools and patio furniture in it over winter
- Apply an autumn lawn feed to revive the grass after the rigours of summer
- Remove barley straw, placed in the pond in spring to discourage algae, once it has turned black
- Empty ceramic and glazed pots that aren't frost proof and store in a shed over winter
- Spike compacted lawns and brush grit into the holes to improve drainage
- Fork up perennial weeds, including horsetail or bindweed, removing every bit of root
- Cut autumn-fruiting raspberries down to the ground after harvesting
- Collect up hoses and drip-feed systems and store indoors over winter, so they don't freeze and split
- Clean out and disinfect bird boxes
- Gather up canes and plant supports that are no longer in use, and store indoors over winter
- Go on regular snail hunts, especially on damp evenings, to reduce overwintering populations
On the forum: join in the discussion, share your wisdom and ask for help
Use bags or boxes to make leaf mould
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Nandina domestica or sacred bamboo is an ideal container specimen plant. Green foliage changes to fiery hues of orange and red towards winters, with white spring blossom later forming red berries.
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*Just pay £5.95 postage to claim a beautiful collection of 30 tulip bulbs. Plus, pay no extra postage on a selection of other bulb offers.
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