Your Garden In October

October can be glorious or ghastly, depending on how the weather gods are feeling. I recall travelling to Delhi in October 2011 and the weather stuff hotter in Kent than in India – it was scrutinizingly 30ºC at home! I moreover remember last year’s storms and upper winds that brought a swift, unforgiving end to any hopes of an Indian summer. Frost is now a unshared possibility in the country’s north, and at higher elevations, while lanugo south, we should stave subzero temperatures until at least November.

The weightier way to tideway October is to expect little and count every fine day as a blessing. A thoughtfully planned, well-tended garden will still have plenty to requite surpassing the trees lose their leaves next month. Prompted by the shortening days, asters, rudbeckias, echinaceas, sedums, dahlias, salvias, cannas, colchicums, nerines and gingers will be flowering their socks off, sustaining insects and pollinators until it’s time to die or hibernate. In their scarcity and tenacity, storing flowers have a particular eyeful and poignancy.

October mirrors April as stuff a rented month. As well as readying the garden for winter, there’s much to be washed-up in preparation for spring. While the ground is warm and moist, bulbs can be planted, perennials divided, and shrubs moved, giving them time to settle in surpassing it gets cold. Pace yourself, but don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today, as it’ll be Christmas surpassing you know it!

There is still time in the early morning and evening to enjoy quiet moments of contemplation and reflection. October is an spanking-new time to make plans and mentally note the volume of plants surpassing they start shrinking back. I can barely move in my garden now, which is how I like it, but any increasingly plants could be problematic. Soon I will uncork tidying and wearing when to reduce potential wind forfeiture while preserving as much imbricate as possible for birds and insects. Plane in my tiny urban oasis, an uncanny value of wildlife remains active.

Further Translating From Dan Cooper Garden

• How And When To Plant Spring-Flowering Bulbs
• Planting A Container For Storing Colour
• In The Know – Hedge Trimming
• How To Prune Like A Pro
• Divine Dahlias – Get To Know And Grow Them

Indoors

With summer firmly overdue us, now’s the time to stop feeding, gradually reduce watering and ensure plants get all the light they need.

• Bring in house plants and citrus trees that have spent the summer outside. Trammels them for pests, including slugs and snails hiding underneath pots, surpassing reuniting them with their indoor plant pals. As a precaution, requite plants a quick spritz with a natural formulation bug tenancy spray.
• Give each plant an end-of-season pamper. Remove sufferer flowers, dying leaves and any unwanted growth. This will modernize the plant’s visitation and indulge air to circulate freely. Remove detritus from the surface of the compost to prevent diseases from spreading.
• I am often asked well-nigh the tiny woebegone flies that occasionally infest houseplants. These harmless creatures are slime gnats, and they’re feeding on organic matter in the compost. Slime gnats are drawn to wateriness compost, which could signify that you’re watering too much. If they irritate you, spread a layer of horticultural grit or finely crushed shells over the compost surface, and they’ll pester you no more.
• Reappraise where your plants are positioned to ensure each one gets the optimal value of light. Shorter days and lower light levels make a significant difference, meaning that plants that enjoyed spending time yonder from windows in summer need full exposure again.
• Beware killer drafts! Plants detest rapid temperature fluctuations, so stave positions near radiators, in fireplaces, next to external doors or by drafty windows. Browning foliage is a sure sign that a plant is unhappy, so move it immediately to a increasingly healthful spot.
• Watering frequency can be reduced gradually over the coming weeks. Touch the compost surface, and if it feels moist, do not water. I have once noticed that my houseplants can be left for twice or plane three times as many days compared to the height of summer. However, don’t just stop watering suddenly. Watering frequency can be reduced gradually over the coming weeks. Touch the compost surface, and if it feels moist, do not water. Plane cacti and succulents may need a drink occasionally.
• Stop feeding altogether, plane those plants that flower at Christmas. Overfeeding will encourage rapid, sappy growth that’s vulnerable to pests.
• Bring unseeded cyclamen corms and amaryllis bulbs when into growth by potting them in fresh compost, placing them in a light position and watering them sparingly.
• Pot up hyacinths and daffodils for Christmas flowering. Squint out for bulbs that have been ‘prepared’ – a period of spooky to fool them into thinking that winter has come and gone. Alimony the bulbs in the visionless until the emerging shoots are 2-3cm long, and then bring them into a unexceptionable position. If they’re developing too quickly, move them into potation (but not darker) conditions to slow them down.

Potting Shed & Greenhouse

• If you cleaned your greenhouse in September, it would be ready to receive plants as you move them in from the garden. It’s not too late to spruce it up; just segregate a warm, dry day so you can work comfortably and ensure that any plants you need to move outside temporarily don’t reservation a cold.
• Replace wrenched panes of glass and wipe yonder any dirt or white shading to maximise light levels.
• Given the escalating forfeit of fuel, consider whether or not you need to heat your greenhouse this winter. Perhaps giving a spare room over to tender plants might be cheaper than heating a greenhouse? If heating is a must, think well-nigh how to insulate the space and alimony it warm without breaking the bank.
• Dramatic fluctuations between day and night temperatures are typical of October. Alimony doors and windows unshut on warm days but tropical them up at night to maintain an plane temperature.
• Once tomatoes stop ripening naturally on their vines, pick any that have reached full size and pop them in a box, drawer or paper bag with a banana. The comic will produce ethylene which promotes ripening. Alternatively, make untried tomato chutney.
• Sow salads, pak choi, parsley and coriander for fresh crops of leaves over winter. They won’t need heat, but they will fathom shelter from the elements.
• Sow sweet peas in deep pots for early flowers next summer. Wait until the weather is unceasingly tomfool as you want the seedlings to focus on producing strong roots rather than lots of top growth. By sowing in rubberized coir pots, you will be worldly-wise to plant out your sweet peas in April without torturous the roots.
• On wet weekends, make time to wipe and sharpen your tools so that they’re ready for action. If you’re not going to use them for a while, stratify the blades with camellia oil to protect them versus rust.
• Gather up hoses and irrigation systems, making sure they’re completely tuckered of water. Storing them indoors over winter will help them last considerably longer.
• If you have guttering on your shed, make sure it’s well-spoken of moss and sufferer leaves. Consider installing a water stump if you don’t once have one. If we have flipside summer like 2022 you’ll be glad of the volitional to tap water.

Terrace & Balcony

Terraces and balconies tend to be tropical to our windows, so they must squint good all year round. Don’t tolerate tired-looking plants in full view – either move them out of the way or replace them with something that will lift your spirits.

• If you planted containers with summer bedding, they’re probably past their weightier by now. Surpassing pots wilt an eyesore, compost any annuals and rescue perennial plants such as fuchsias, geraniums and begonias if you wish to alimony them. They can be overwintered in a greenhouse, sunroom or on a sunny windowsill.
• Discard old potting compost as it will be devoid of nutrients and may harbour pests such as vine weevils: spread it on your veggie patch or empty confines where the birds will have fun picking it over. Then wipe pots with a stiff skim surpassing reusing them. If you time it right, you can plant them with bulbs and spring sheets straight away.
• Empty pots that aren’t frost-proof. Let them dry out surpassing storing them in a shed or garage over winter.
• If you use pot saucers to help retain moisture, remove these now and lift pots onto pot feet to facilitate good drainage. Wet and unprepossessed is a combination most plants won’t tolerate.
• Spring-flowering bulbs are perfect for pots. Segregate shorter, stouter varieties that are less likely to wrack-up over or flummox when they bloom. My preference is to plant one variety per pot so that when it has finished flowering, I can move the pot out of sight and let the foliage die down. However, layering bulbs in pots, sometimes tabbed the ‘lasagne method’, can produce magical results and a succession of flowers for 2-3 months. The drawback is that the elongating leaves of early flowering bulbs can make the exhibit untidy later on. When planting, trammels that each variety will grow taller than the one that flowers surpassing it.
• No one wants to traipse up and lanugo the garden in pitch black, so plant a container of herbs that you can stand outside the when door for picking when the mood takes you. Sage, thyme, rosemary and parsley will stay untried and healthy all winter. Punctuate the herbs with a few violas, and you’ll have a supply of unexceptionable flowers to garnish salads and decorate cakes.
• The wind is the enemy if you garden on a balcony. Protect plants that stick their heads whilom the parapet or reduce their height to stop them from getting tanked about. Grouping plants closely together will create warmth, humidity and shelter.

Flower Garden

As the month progresses, there’s a noticeable thinning of flowers and foliage, creating space for bulb planting. Weeds and self-seeded plants will exploit the very same gaps, so be prepared to spend a lot of time on your hands and knees this month! There may still be plenty of blooms to enjoy, particularly asters and chrysanthemums. Cut them when the weather is fine and surpassing they get spoiled by the weather.

• It’s time to secure the future of tender perennials such as bananas, begonias, angel’s trumpets (Brugmansia), cannas, coleus, fuchsias, gingers and pelargoniums. If you plan to alimony them, lift the plants, trim when the roots and tidy the upper portions. Pot them in fresh compost and overwinter in a frost-free environment. If you want them to alimony growing, they’ll need spanking-new light. If that can’t be provided, bananas, brugmansias, cannas, fuchsias and gingers will cope perfectly well in an unlit garage, vault or loft until they start growing then in April.
• Conditions are platonic for dividing clumps of perennials, saving the most vigorous sections for replanting. A Japanese Hori Hori will make light work of the job. Container-grown plants will settle in fast if planted now.
• Wallflowers, forget-me-nots, pansies and violas can be moved into flowering positions. Many of us do this in tandem with seedling planting to create a multi-layered exhibit in spring.
• Look out for self-sown seedlings. Protect and nurture those you want to alimony and pull out the surplus. Nature can be incredibly generous, so don’t be wrung to thin seedlings out so that there is 20-30cm between each one. Spares can be given yonder or potted up and sold at the garden gate.

• Continue picking flowers as often as possible. You won’t encourage many increasingly flowers to develop now, but you can enjoy them indoors. You can be a little increasingly relaxed well-nigh deadheading now, leaving seedheads to form for seed hodgepodge or their wildlife value.
• Chrysanthemums must be supported with twigs or canes to take their full flowering weight. The stems can be quite brittle, so it’s not unchangingly possible to resurrect them once they’ve been flattened.
• Keep clumps of nerines self-ruling of weeds and overhanging plants so their glistening flowers can be fully appreciated.
• After an early frost, lift dahlias and gladioli, wearing the stems when to virtually 5cm. Leave them somewhere warm and dry for a couple of days and pebbles any damaged tubers or corms with yellow sulphur. Store them in unshut crates or boxes covered with old potting compost or straw – this needs to be dry but not unorthodoxy dry. Alimony the crates in a frost-free, visionless place and trammels them every so often to ensure they’re still healthy. In milder parts of the UK dahlias can be left in the ground, but it’s still wise to imbricate them with a deep mulch of old potting compost, mushroom compost or fallen leaves for insulation.

Trees, Shrubs & Lawns

• It’s the perfect time to plant evergreen shrubs and conifer hedges while the soil is still warm. Start small unless instant results are necessary – ultimately, smaller plants will outgrow established ones, and they’re cheaper to replace if they fail. You can moreover move evergreen trees and shrubs now if required.
• Deciduous hedges can be created using bare-rooted plants purchased between November and March. Order them now from a reputable supplier.
• Take cuttings of dogwood (Cornus), willow and forsythia. They are easy-peasy to do – it’s as simple as wearing a pencil-thick shoot underneath a leaf and popping it in the ground – but will take several months to root. It will be a year or so surpassing you can transplant hardwood cuttings so forget well-nigh them, and you should have vigorous new plants in twelve months’ time.
• Wind can immensely forfeiture roses if they’re unliable to waddle when and forth. The whoopee is similar to repeatedly limp a piece of soft metal, causing weakness at the point where the plant is flexing – often the junction between the roots and branches. Wearing yonder dead, diseased or damaged stems to a healthy bud is a good start. Then reduce the length of side shoots by well-nigh two-thirds to an outward-facing bud. If you can still see the wiring of the plant moving at ground level, you might want to add a stake for good measure. The same translating applies to other flowering shrubs such as lavatera and buddleja.
• There’s a fine line between creating a wildlife-friendly garden and preserving the health of your plants – not all trash is good! Collect fallen leaves from under rose bushes so they don’t siphon diseases over to the next year. Burn any diseased leaves, don’t compost them.
• It’s been wondrous to see how rapidly lawns have recovered without one of the driest years on record. Be patient and requite yellowish patches time to untried up. If they don’t, they can be resown in spring.
• Keeping lawns self-ruling of fallen leaves is hair-trigger for their health. Wet grass with no light and airflow can succumb to a slime tabbed fusarium, which causes circular orange patches to appear. Rake leaves regularly and pile them in mesh tons or bins to rot lanugo and create leaf mould.
• Start raising the height of the blades on your lawnmower and use a fork or aerator to spike your lawn, improving drainage. Apply an storing lawn feed, but only when you’re satisfied that the grass has fully recovered from summer’s drought.
• If you’re planning to plant spring-flowering bulbs in grass or where they’re once naturalised, cut the grass short so that the bulbs are higher than the sward in spring. That way, you’ll get a clearer view of the flowers.

Kitchen Garden & Allotment

Given how early crops ripened this year, the chances are that your main harvest is over. However, there’s still plenty to do in preparation for winter and spring.

• Tall brassicas such as Brussels sprouts, kale and purple sprouting are prone to rocking in the wind. Remove yellowing leaves, firm plants in with your heel, stake and imbricate with a taught net to protect the good leaves from hungry birds.
• Cut lanugo the wispy foliage of asparagus once it starts to turn yellow. Weed thoughtfully between the crowns to make sure perennial weeds can’t get a foothold.
• If you’re left with empty beds, sow untried manure like winter rye. While growing, it will prevent weeds from taking over; when dug in, untried manure will contribute vital nutrients to the earth.
• Potatoes are greedy plants. Once you’ve lifted every tuber from the soil, add a generous quantity of manure to restore fertility. In lighter soils, you can dig the manure in; in heavier soils, it can be spread on the surface, permitting worms to do all the nonflexible work.
• Pumpkins and squashes need time to cure, during which time they develop tough skins. This improves their keeping qualities. Lift ripe fruit onto bricks or straw to alimony them dry and exposed to the sun. In wateriness and dreary weather, cure the fruits on a sunny windowsill or greenhouse staging.
• Sow a hardy wholesale stone variety such as ‘Meteor’ or ‘Aquadulce Claudia’. The young plants will overwinter and produce a yield from May onwards. Imbricate them with fleece or cloches if it gets very unprepossessed in the meantime.
• Cut when herbs that have flowered, including sage, lemon balm, marjoram and mint. The stems can be taken scrutinizingly to ground level. Large clumps can be lifted, divided and replanted or shared with friends. Make sure that mint is replanted in a serving space as it will spread and dominate its neighbours. Cuttings can be made of rosemary, lemon verbena and thyme.
• Plant garlic cloves in well-drained soil in full sun. Space them 15cm untied with their tips 5cm unelevated the surface. You can moreover plant some varieties of shallot and onion now.
• If your figs have not ripened, they are unlikely to do so now. Any that are on the cusp of ripeness can be encouraged by placing them in a bag with a comic or simply left on a sunny windowsill to develop their full flavour. Any that are nonflexible and untried are a lost cause. Tiny, pea-sized figs are next year’s fruits and should not be tampered with.
• Wrap grease bands virtually the trunks of fruit trees to trap the wingless females of the winter moth – when the caterpillars sally next spring, they can do a lot of forfeiture to the tree’s leaves and reduce cropping. You can buy grease bands from garden centres.
• Cut out the fruited stems of blackberries, loganberries and storing raspberries. I like to requite them mulch at the same time. Train the long new shoots of brambles into a upper wily shape to maximise the fruiting length of the stems. Tie them firmly to a supporting structure.
• Apples are ready for picking when they sit in the palm of your hand and come yonder with a slight twist. If you have to pull hard, they’re not quite ready yet. Store apples in a cool, dry, well-ventilated spot until you’re ready to use them.

Wildlife & Sustainable Garden

October is a month of transpiration in the garden, with many insects and animals going into hibernation whilst others build up their strength for winter. As gardeners, we are responsible for ensuring the wildlife in our gardens has the weightier endangerment of survival. That ways providing as much food, water and shelter as possible from now until spring.

• Butterflies feed voraciously surpassing overwintering. Buddleja, hebes, sedums, Michaelmas daisies and ivy are among their favourite flowers to visit in October. Squint out for bumble bees sheltering inside dahlia flowers.
• Ducks, geese, redwings and fieldfares will soon start to victorious for winter. This summer’s drought will likely result in a scarcity of seeds, nuts and berries, so we should be prepared to supplement birds’ natural supplies sources until spring.
• Clean bird boxes, feeders and birdbaths thoroughly in readiness for winter. You can convert an empty nest box into a winter roost by transplanting and cleaning it in autumn, then subtracting a cosy material like sheep’s wool.
• If you’re thinking of having a bonfire, be sure that no animals are hiding within the material you’re hoping to be rid of. Tempt wildlife elsewhere by towers stacks of logs in which they can hibernate undisturbed. Build bonfires from scratch rather than setting fire to an established pile.
• Hedgerows will be dripping with berries, haws and hips, providing supplies for birds, small mammals, moths and insects. Stave trimming or tidying until the leaves have fallen and all the fruits have gone.
• Don’t be unceremonious and harvest every pear, plum or world you can reach. Leave a few fruits on each tree for birds and butterflies to enjoy. If you don’t have fruit trees in your garden, hang apples from a workshop or pergola instead. Be enlightened that wasps moreover like to feed on ripening fruit. They get drunk on the sweet juice, making them aggressive, which is one of the reasons that you’re increasingly likely to be stung by wasps in the autumn.
• Leave seedheads on plants such as teasel, lavender, sunflowers and Verbena bonariensis. These will provide supplies for birds and small mammals through storing and winter.
• Material for composting mounts up rapidly during autumn. While it’s still warm, alimony layering wet and dry materials and turning them to speed up the composting process. Ensure you have zaftig compost bins and net sacks for collecting leaves and making leafmould. If you have space in your greenhouse, consider moving a compost bin inside to generate a small value of preliminaries heat as the contents decompose.