10 gardening tips for October
If you’re wondering what to grow and what to do in the garden in October, check out this video of 10 tips from Eden Project gardener Catherine Cutler.
October is the perfect time to get colourful bulbs in the ground for next spring, as well as to enjoy autumn’s harvest of apples and pumpkins.
- Care for your lawn by raking or brushing leaves off the grass. Try collecting them in a leaf bag, which will turn them into useful leaf mould. You can also cut the grass for one last time this year. Make that last cut slightly higher to protect the lawn from winter frost.
- Trim hedges so they are crisp and tidy for the winter.
- October’s the time for clearing up. Greenhouses, ponds, gutters and water butts may all need cleaning out, wooden garden furniture will need covering or storing for the winter and terracotta pots will need bringing inside.
- Divide herbaceous perennials (soft-stemmed plants which die back to the ground in winter and re-emerge in spring). Plant some back in the ground; take others to pot up and give away to friends in the spring.
- In the veg patch plant garlic cloves with their pointed ends up, and spaced 10cm apart.
- Plant bulbs for a colourful spring display. Try planting clumps of five or seven bulbs of the same variety through a border for a really effective display.
- Plant out spring bedding and biennials, such as wall-flowers, for spring displays. Pots and hanging baskets can be planted with spring bedding, and teamed with bulbs, grasses, cyclamen and violas for a colourful and textural display.
- ‘Plant’ prepared hyacinths in vases for winter scent and colour in the house.
- Harvest pumpkins for eating as well as carving. Try this pumpkin pie recipe.
- Enjoy the apple harvest! Why not pop along to an Apple Day in your local area – or hold your own?
With thanks to Catherine Cutler and James Clark.
