Jobs to do in the Garden in October

– Think about starting a compost bin by adding fruit and vegetable scraps, grass clippings, old plants, weeds, and leafy matter (disease-free). Add brown materials like hedge clippings, shredded paper, and straw to keep it from becoming too soggy. Enhance your compost’s quality with a compost activator.

– Trim shrub roses to prevent wind rock, prune rambling and climbing roses after they finish blooming, and loosely tie the stems to supports with plant ties. Remove any fallen leaves to help prevent diseases like black spot.

– Apply an autumn/winter feed to your lawn to rejuvenate it after heavy summer use.

– Use glue bands around the trunks of apple, pear, cherry, and plum trees to keep moths, ants, earwigs, and other crawling pests at bay.

– Cover your pond with netting to keep leaves from falling in. Left unchecked, decaying leaves can cause ammonia build-up and harm local wildlife, making the water stagnant and acidic.

– Protect half-hardy plants from the cold with frost fleece.

– For a splash of colour on gloomy days, plant cyclamen, winter heather, hellebore, winter pansy, and primrose in pots for winter blooms.

– Now is a great time to plant hedges, evergreen shrubs, and conifers, or relocate them while the soil retains some warmth.

– Before moving plants into your greenhouse for the winter, check them thoroughly for any signs of pests or diseases.

– Set up your greenhouse tube heater in preparation for early frosts.

– Give your greenhouse a thorough cleaning and disinfecting to clear out any debris that might host pests or diseases, ensuring your plants get maximum light during the winter months.

– As the nights get cooler, insulate your greenhouse with bubble wrap to safeguard your plants.

– While the soil is still warm, divide or lift overcrowded herbaceous perennials and deciduous shrubs.

– Take hardwood cuttings from deciduous shrubs, herbaceous plants, and ornamental trees.

– Brighten up winter days by planting spring-flowering bulbs such as alliums, begonias, crocuses, daffodils, dahlias, freesias, gladioli, iris reticulata, lilies, muscari, snowdrops, and tulips.

– Use cloches to protect your salad plants and help boost your harvest.

– Apply a winter tree wash to the trunks and branches of fruit trees, bushes, and dormant vines under glass to prevent early infestations when the growing season begins.

– Cut back fruited stems of blackberries and autumn raspberries, leaving only the green canes for next year. Secure new canes to a trellis for winter protection.

– Sow hardy broad beans and peas outdoors now for an early crop next year.

– Clean and disinfect bird feeders and bird boxes, then refill them with quality bird food.

– Prevent infestations when the growing season begins by applying a winter tree wash to all fruit trees, bushes, and dormant vines.