October sits at the heart of autumn for gardeners. Harvesting is in full swing, with slicing, dicing, freezing and storing all on the go. There are also those general jobs to keep on top of: tidying up, preparing for winter, and, yes, even sowing a few seeds now.
We’ve pulled together a handy list along with some thoughts on mulching.
🥕Vegetable Highlights
Sow outdoors: broad beans, hardy peas, radishes
Sow with protection (cloches, cold frame or unheated greenhouse): early summer cauliflowers, winter lettuce and cut-and-come-again crops such as cress, oriental salads, salad rapini, rocket, texel greens.
Tip: reuse this year’s old growbags from your tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. There’s still plenty of goodness left in them for winter lettuces and other leafy crops.
Plant out: spring cabbage, winter lettuce
Plant under cover: endive, remaining salads and orientals from earlier sowings.
For more ideas, head to All Vegetables and filter by ‘Sow in October’.
Veggie jobs this October…
• Earth up leeks for longer pale shanks
• Cut back and earth up chicory ready for outdoor forcing
• Mulch celeriac and parsnips with straw before hard frosts. It helps protect them and can make roots easier to lift when the ground turns cold.
• Use straw, cloches or fleece tunnels to protect red chicories, salad plants and oriental greens as the weather cools and frosts become more likely
• Thin out swedes, corn salad and winter lettuce if needed.
• Remove dead or yellowing leaves from winter brassicas and compost them if they’re disease-free.
• Check you are protecting your brussels and broccoli from hungry pigeons
Veggie harvesting...
• Pick any remaining green tomatoes before frost gets them. Bring them indoors to ripen, or turn them into green tomato chutney.
• In cold areas, lift and store carrots and beetroot.
• Bring in pumpkins, squashes and marrows before the first frost.
• Harvest your last runner beans before the cold weather finishes them off
🪴Herby Highlights & Things to Do
Harvest fresh while you can: Basil, Borage, Chervil, Fennel, Marigold, Marjoram, Parsley, Rosemary, Sage, Winter Savory, Sorrel and Thyme
• Collect herb seed as it ripens.
• Tidy up dead and dying foliage and stems, composting healthy material.
• Cut back mint and lightly tidy winter savory and hyssop if needed.
• Give moisture-loving perennial herbs a little leaf mould around the base if you have some.
• Ease back on watering and move tender container herbs under protection before the weather turns too cold (cold frame, greenhouse or conservatory).
• Clear annual herbs as they finish, but bring any tender favourites indoors if you want to keep them going a little longer.
• Sow sweet cicely and lavender. Both can benefit from the colder conditions ahead.
For more ideas, head to All Herbs and filter by ‘Sow in October’.
🌻October Flower Power
• Tidy plants as they die back and add mulch where a little extra winter protection will help.
• Dig out any weeds that have been hiding underneath your ornamentals.
• Sow sweet peas to overwinter for strong plants and earlier flowers next year.
For more ideas, head to All Flowers and filter by ‘Sow in October’.
🍓Fruity Actions
• Transplant the strongest of your seed-raised rhubarb plants
• Tidy up your existing strawberry patch and add leaf mould or a mulch.
• Sow alpine strawberries now and let the colder weather ahead help with germination.
• If you've fruit bushes and trees, give them a quick check for pests, disease or dieback. Top up sticky bands where you use them and protect any ripening fruit from the birds.
🧹General Bits and Bobs
• Tidy up pea sticks, canes and netting as crops finish.
• If you dig your garden, autumn is a good time to tackle heavy soil and add organic matter where it's needed.
• If you like to prepare a bean trench, now's a good time to start. Dig a trench about a spade deep and gradually fill it with garden compost or well-rotted organic matter before covering it with soil ready for spring.
• Mulch bare areas to protect the soil and help keep nutrients where you want them. More about mulches below.
• Give your greenhouse a good clean and clear-out, but leave the spiders to deal with the bugs you don’t want!
• Wash out pots and trays so they’re ready for the spring rush.
• Keep mowing while the grass is still growing, raising the blades a little as growth slows. Save the clippings for mulch or the compost heap.
🍁Mulching
A good mulch does all sorts of useful things: protecting the soil, helping to keep weeds down and, depending on what you use, adding goodness as it breaks down.
Try:
• homemade garden compost spread over bare soil
• autumn leaves, dampened first so they don't immediately blow around the garden
• a mix of straw, grass clippings and autumn leaves
• healthy runner bean, French bean and sweet pea plants, chopped up once they've finished
• plain cardboard, with tape and labels removed, covered with compost, leaves or another mulch to hold it down
I have to admit I really like using straw in my garden. It looks good, it's easy to spread and easy to tuck around and in between overwintering veg. It’s light, good at insulating and just needs a bit of compost here and there to weigh it down! Mix it with grass clippings, autumn leaves and compost and it makes a brilliant mulch.
It's handy for paths through the winter too, making things a bit less muddy underfoot. Like any option, there can be downsides: not everyone can get their hands on straw bales and a full bale can be surprisingly heavy to move. You may introduce the odd weed seed along the way. But for me, the good bits outweigh those little niggles. It's practical, natural and very satisfying to use!
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🍂A little time spent now will make all the difference later. Tidy beds, mulched soil and a few protected crops mean you’ll step into winter relaxed and ready for the next round of growing.
Not sure what you could be sowing? Our Easy Seed Planner is a handy place to explore what can be sown through autumn and into the seasons ahead.
