Gardening Hints & Tips for the month

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October is a really busy and useful month in the garden. The soil is still relatively warm, there is usually more moisture around, and it’s an excellent time to prepare the garden for winter and get a head start on next spring. 

🌸 Flowers and borders

• Plant spring bulbs such as daffodils, crocuses, alliums and hyacinths. Tulips can also be planted, particularly later in autumn.
• Plant winter pansies, violas, wallflowers, primulas and forget-me-notsfor colour through the colder months and into spring.
• Divide overcrowded perennials such as hostas, daylilies and hardy geraniums.
• Don’t be too keen to cut everything back. Leaving some seedheads and stems over winter provides food and shelter for wildlife and gives the garden some winter structure. 
• Lift dahlias and cannas after the first frost has blackened the foliage if you are in a colder area.

🍎 Fruit and vegetables

• Plant garlic and overwintering onion sets.
• Plant out spring cabbages, protecting them from pigeons.
• In milder parts of the UK, you can sow broad beans and overwintering peas.
• Harvest remaining apples, pears, grapes, pumpkins and squash.
• Clear away finished tomato and bean plants. With peas and beans, leaving the roots in the ground allows the roots to break down and return nitrogen and organic matter to the soil. 

🌳 Trees, shrubs and hedges

• October is a very good time to plant or move trees, shrubs, roses and hedges.
• Give climbing roses their main pruning.
• October is generally the last opportunity to trim deciduous hedgesbefore winter.
• Check tree stakes and ties before autumn and winter winds.
• Collect fallen leaves, particularly from lawns. Put healthy leaves into a separate pile or bin to make leaf mould. 

🍂 Lawns

• Give the lawn an autumn tidy by removing leaves regularly.
• If the ground isn’t waterlogged, scarify and aerate the lawn to improve drainage and encourage healthy roots.
• Mow if necessary, but raise the mower height slightly compared with summer.
• October is a good time to repair bare patches or lay new turf, particularly in milder areas. 

🐝 Jobs for wildlife

• Try not to make the garden too tidy. Leave some seedheads and fallen leaves beneath shrubs for insects and other wildlife.
• Make a leaf pile or log pile to provide shelter.
• Put out clean water for birds and keep feeders topped up as natural food becomes scarcer.
• If you have a pond, put a net over it to catch falling leaves, but leave anything you remove beside the pond for a couple of days so insects and other wildlife can escape back into the water. 

🧤 General October jobs

• Empty and clean greenhouses and bring tender plants inside before serious frosts.
• Raise pots and containers slightly off the ground so they don’t sit in water.
• Clean, sharpen and oil garden tools.
• Clean gutters and check sheds, fences and greenhouse glass before winter.
• Turn the compost heap if you can, checking first for wildlife living inside.
• Clean out water butts and make sure hoses are drained before freezing weather. 

A good October rule: don’t feel that everything needs cutting down and tidying. An autumn garden with a little bit of mess is often a much better garden for wildlife — and it can look beautiful in winter too.