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
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
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
Use bags or boxes to make leaf mould
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This beautifully scented potted evergreen daphne, flowers non-stop from April through to October. A compact shrub, it is great for planting as a fragrant border edge, or perfect in pots in gardens with restricted space.
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This pretty, compact Buddleja 'Buzz 3 in 1' is perfect for small gardens or pots. A colourful, wildlife-friendly shrub which has a profusion of flower spikes in indigo, ivory and pale pink throughout summer, only growing to a height of 1.2m.
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