The days are getting shorter and the temperatures cooler and you look forward to arriving home from work to a warm dinner and evening in front of the fire. However, you do still want a well-kept garden to look out on, thus it needs to be maintained. This maintenance isn’t important simply for aesthetic reasons, though, it is important that you take appropriate care of your garden the whole way through the year to ensure your plants and flowers will grow to the best of their ability and will survive the inevitable cold weather to avoid the need for re-planting next spring.
Tidy Up without Overdoing it
You should continue to remove the unsightly weeds from flower and vegetable patches and to trim the edge of your grass and lawn areas, but you shouldn’t overdo it. Don’t worry about clearing up seedheads as they can provide food for birds. Likewise, leave as much debris as you can bear on the grass as it will act as cover for many different species of wildlife, making your garden a more interesting space. Fallen leaves can also be left to rot down and provide a sort of compost for your grass.
Top tip: Don’t leave any diseased leaf matter on your grass, burn it to ensure it’s properly removed. If left laying around, it can attract pests and damage any healthy living matter you have.
Clean out the Greenhouse
Now that your greenhouse crops have finished growing for the year, October is a perfect time to have a spring (or rather, autumn) clean of your greenhouse. This task can be kept fairly quick and simple if done regularly and will prevent pests from hibernating there over the course of the winter months. You should wash, scrub and hose down all areas, paying particular attention to potential dark and dusty corners where pests may hide. Properly cleaning the glass will also allow light to enter the greenhouse, preventing it from becoming dark and dingy. Top tip: Consider investing in special greenhouse insulation that cleverly allows the light in to benefit any plants inside, but prevents the cold from ruining them.
Protect your Plants
What with the harsh winter morning frosts fast approaching, there is no better time to take appropriate measures you protect your plants. Free standing potted plants should be brought inside, if possible to ensure total protection from the cold. Larger areas, such as vegetable and flower patches, or plants that can’t easily be moved inside should be covered with a cloche or fleece cover . These are readily available at garden centres and should keep the frost from damaging the plants you spent so much effort maintaining.
Top tip: Don’t automatically choose your cloche or fleece according to price, research which type would be best suited for the area you want to protect.
Do you have anymore advice on which gardening tasks are essential in October? Perhaps you could recommend a certain type of cover to use for different plants. Let us know in the comments!
[Photo Credit:UGArdener]
