October in the Garden
From pumpkins to bonfires and frost. Make the most of Autumn!
October arrives with misty mornings, sodden lawns and the year's first real chill. It's a month of contrasts: golden afternoons that feel like summer's last gasp, followed by evenings cold enough to warrant a coat by the fire. For gardeners, it's the busiest quiet month of the year, a final push before dormancy sets in, and a chance to set the plot up for everything that follows.
Begin with the harvest. Winter squash and pumpkins should be ripening to a deep, even colour now. Cut them with a generous length of stalk while the skin is dry, this slows rot and keeps your jack-o'-lantern grinning well into November. Cure the fruits somewhere warm and airy for a fortnight before storing; this toughens the rind and extends keeping quality through the winter. Any fruits still green when frost threatens can be ripened indoors on a sunny windowsill. Don't waste the scooped flesh: roast the seeds with salt and paprika for a fireside snack (see our recipe on pg.4), and simmer the pulp into soup or purée for freezing, you can also try our pumpkin bread recipe!
Halloween falls at the perfect moment for the plot. Carve your lantern from homegrown stock, then dress the doorstep with ornamental gourds, ruby chard and the skeletal seed heads of honesty and teasel. A few spiky sea holly heads or dried allium globes, sprayed black or left natural, add a gothic touch to window boxes. Slugs and snails will be sheltering in damp corners, so a dusk patrol with a torch pays dividends now, protecting late crops and next spring's seedlings.
Garlic planted this month will establish roots before the cold sets in, rewarding you with fatter bulbs next summer. Broad beans can go in too, in a sheltered spot, for an early crop. Clear spent annuals and diseased foliage rather than composting them, and spread well-rotted manure over empty beds, worms will work it in over winter. Mulch bare ground to suppress weeds and protect soil structure from heavy rain.
Then comes bonfire night. Build your pyre from dry garden waste: prunings, dead stems, cardboard. Avoid treated timber, plastics and anything painted, which release harmful fumes. Site it well clear of fences, sheds and overhanging branches, and always check the base for hibernating hedgehogs before lighting. A leaf and log pile in a quiet corner makes a safer refuge for wildlife.
Once cooled, wood ash is a valuable resource. Rich in potassium and lime, it suits fruit bushes and flowering plants, but keep it away from acid-lovers like rhododendrons, camellias and blueberries, and never spread it where potatoes will grow.
Finally, plant tulips and daffodils for spring, and rake leaves into a wire bin to make leafmould. As bonfire smoke drifts and frost silvers the borders, the garden settles, but the work you do now shapes everything that follows.
