October brings a wonderful richness of colour to the garden and the clear sunny days and night frosts that we often get at this time of year lead to the intensity of colour in the leaves and shrubs. If you get some time out of the garden this month, try and visit an arboretum, such as Westonbirt in Gloucestershire, to enjoy the dazzling display of colour. And don’t forget to enjoy the harvest from your garden; homegrown apples and pears can be gathered and stored for enjoying in the winter months ahead. There are plenty of October garden jobs to keep you busy!
This is the best month for planting out, while the soil is moist but still warm. Although leaf foliage commands the autumn scene, it is by no means the sole contributor of colour. An excellent backdrop plant is the Michaelmas daisy Aster x frikartii ‘Mönch’, whose mauve flowers are alive with bees and butterflies gilded by autumn sunshine. Combine with the upright, feathery plumes of Miscanthus sinensis ‘Ferner Osten’, which lends a lightness to a planting scheme. It can reach nearly 2m in height, so it requires space and sunshine to really show off. We have more ideas for bee-friendly gardens here.
Lift and divide overgrown clumps of perennials. If you’re not sure, older clumps are easily spotted, as all the young, vigorous growth is towards the outside of the clump and the centre is bare. Dividing can be done from now until spring, so long as soil conditions allow. My rule of thumb is if the soil is so wet it sticks to your boots, keep off it. Late flowering perennials, like asters, the Michaelmas daisies, are best left until spring before being divided.
Protect tender plants before the hard frosts arrive. Move pots of pelargoniums, fuchsias and other tender plants into a greenhouse or very sheltered spot. Wrap pots of vulnerable plants with bubble wrap or fleece and mulch around crowns of borderline-hardy perennials like agapanthus.
More October Garden Jobs
Rake up fallen leaves and pile them up to make leaf mould. If leaves are left in a thick layer on the lawn they will kill off the grass and fallen leaves left lying around plants can encourage slugs and snails. If you have a large garden with lots of leaves to deal with, make a container with four stakes and chicken wire in a corner somewhere to contain the leaves. If you have limited space, rake the leaves into plastic bags; leftover compost bags are ideal. Punch holes in the bags and leave in an out-of-the-way space to rot down. In eighteen months or so you will be rewarded with good friable leaf mould, which makes excellent mulch, for free.
Another of the important October garden jobs is to plan ahead for planting bare-root trees and shrubs next month. If you want long-lasting plants it’s worth preparing the ground well. If you are planning a border of shrubs and trees, dig over the entire area. It may seem a lot of work but will be worth it in the long term. Remove all the roots of perennial weeds (these are the ones that re-appear each year). If you leave even a tiny portion of root behind they might grow again. Dig in plenty of organic matter; this could be well-rotted manure or compost.
Now is the perfect time to plant bulbs in your garden, before the ground becomes too wet or cold. Don’t buy bulbs that are squashy. They should be hard, like an onion. I aim to buy bulbs that will give a succession of colour, from the first snowdrops to the last alliums in May. Spring-flowering bulbs can be planted in drifts, just as they might in the wild, or naturalised in patches among the grasses of the lawn. A rule of thumb when planting bulbs is to plant each bulb twice as deep as its height. If you are buying from a garden centre most bulbs will come with instruction as to the ideal depth, but it can get a little confusing so I just remember that the bigger the bulb, the deeper into the ground it will need to go. This is because the larger the bulb, the larger the eventual growth will be.
