Ready to dive into the wonderful world of gardening in October?

Get ready to embrace the autumn vibes and let your green thumb shine! In this blog post written by Leanne Cole, she will go through awesome tips, creative ideas, and all the fun you need to make your garden thrive this season.

October is a time of colour change as well as feeling the nip with the first frosts. The evenings are pulling in and so begins the autumn prep to have a tidy garden, and start to prune and cut back.

If you have trees, you may be susceptible to falling leaves. You could rake them up and put them in your green waste bin if you have one or better still, store them up in a chicken wire square cage and make leaf mulch for the borders. Note: black spot on fallen roses need collecting separately to avoid the spread of the fungi, do not add in to the leaf compost.  

October is a great time to lift and make divisions from any herbaceous perennials that you have. These are aquilegia, hostas, ferns, salvias, verbena, penstemon, delphiniums and ornamental poppies. These are all plants that die back to the ground during the winter period until next spring, when they surprise you by reappearing in all their glory. 

If you have any dahlias in your borders, gladioli corms or begonia corms, you can if you wish lift them out, cut the dying foliage back and store away in a dry frost-free place to bring out again next year.  

Now is a great time to cut perennial plants back to the ground if the foliage has died back. Leaving the roots in is better for soil health and biology as well as if you choose, leave the dead foliage in place for wildlife to shelter away this winter. 

If you are lucky enough to have a greenhouse, move tender plants inside to save them from feeling the cold and frosting off. Make sure there are no pests brought in as that can inhibit the healthy environment within the space.  

Lawns will love you if you pick up any fallen leaves to get some light through as well as making a few holes in the lawn to aerate the soil (by way of a fork or a hollow tool) will avoid any compaction as well as potential waterlogging. The thatch layer on top if you have some wiry, strawy, mossy-looking patches, can be raked out and reseeded. 

Netting over ponds will stop fallen leaves going in and making it murky. Getting a net in to clear weeds out is also a good idea. Leaving the weeds next to the pond will allow any wildlife to go back to the water safely.  

*All jobs above are advised and far more successful if done with tea and biscuits (as predicted).*

Thanks for reading,
Leanne :)