Gardening Design Tips

Gardening in October

Instead of taking it easy, doing a bit of sun bathing, and having relaxing meals al fresco, we are unfortunately in the middle of one of the wettest summers in years. However, all is not lost – make sure you maximise your time in the garden and prevent those well-watered weeds from taking over completely. When the borders are too wet to work on – it’s not too early to get a start on some of those unwieldy hedges – taking the worst of the spring growth off now will save you time in the autumn – leaving you just a quick tidy up. Geraniums and other early flowering perennials can be hard cut back now and divided if necessary. With all this wet weather – it’s an ideal time to plant – knowing the roots will be going into moist soil – but make sure the wind doesn’t dry out the roots before going into the ground.

Preparation

If it does get Hot and dry make sure all wildlife has access to water.
You can now start harvesting seed from annuals and perennials.
Sow seeds for next year biennials such as wallflowers, pansies, sweet-williams.

Propagation

Take semi ripe cuttings from shrub

Pruning

Trim your confer hedges and at the same time take some cuttings.
Good time to summer prune wisteria.

Planting

Plant out autumn flowering bulbs.
Finish planting out summer bedding.

Edibles

If you have them lift new potatoes, onions and garlic
Pick your raspberries and currents as they ripen.
Start harvesting your herbs for drying.
Regularly harvest your vegetables.
Sow spring cabbages now for harvesting from February onwards.
Keep making regular sowings of salad crops to see you into the autumn.

Lawns

Continue to mow and trim edges of your lawn regularly.
Unless you missed out in June give your lawn now a liquid feed.

Indoors plants/Glasshouses

At all times keep your greenhouse well ventilated, and damp down regularly.
In hot weather provide shade for any delicate plants.

Maintenance

Even with this wet weather make sure you water and feed your hanging baskets and containers
Dead head flowers through the following months to encourage a second flush of flowers.
Keep a watchful eye on pests and diseases that they don’t get to out of control.
If you have any diseased leaves in the garden make sure you burn or bin them.
Make sure you keep your pond plants in check as some have a tendency of taking over.

Plants that look good this month