Garden Jobs for October… my top 7

October is a funny time of year. Visually, my garden is definitely past its best; there’s some colour still to be found, and the seed heads look lovely, but it’s all much more muted. The garden looks tranquil…almost like it’s resting. Well, the garden may be ‘putting its feet up’, but for gardeners the work doesn’t stop. Now is the moment to lay lots of groundwork for next year. Here are my top 7 garden jobs for October.

My Top 7 Garden Jobs for October

#1 Take Cuttings

Certain plants have been star performers this year. So to have more of them next year, or as an insurance policy in case they don’t survive the winter, I take cuttings in September and October. Salvias are top of my list for this because they can be tender.

I’ve discovered two new red favourites which I definitely want more of and don’t want to lose – Salvia Royal Bumble and Salvia Splendens Van Houttei. You can read the technique for taking the cuttings here in my previous blog.

I’m also taking cuttings of a red fuschia, geraniums and verbena bonariensis.

#2 Sow Sweet Peas Indoors

If you follow me on social media you will know that my sweet peas were an unmitigated disaster this year! Hardly any flowers, and those I had, were pathetic and late. Ridiculous I know, since they’re about the easiest things to grow!

Well to avoid a repeat of this problem, I’ve decided to start early with my sweet peas for next year. My garden jobs for October include doing an Autumn sowing in pots. (3 seeds per 3 inch pot in damp, decent seed compost.) I’ve chosen an old heirloom variety of Sweet Pea Miss Wilmott. It produces a shortish, bushy plant with lots of gorgeous salmon pink flowers making it ideal for a large container. As with all heritage varieties, the flowers are smaller, but apparently the perfume is incredible.

I don’t have a propogator or a greenhouse and can’t be bothered putting polythene bags over seed trays etc – way too much faff! I just stick the planted up pots on a light, warm windowsill in my sitting room – I did this last week and the seeds are already germinating!

#3 Sow Annuals Outdoors

I’ve created a hot corner in my garden this year. In this area I’ve planted Potentilla Scarlet Starlit  and Halimium Calycinum otherwise known as the yellow rock rose. To continue my love affair with Achillea, the area also features Achillea Terracotta which has orange flat flower heads which fade to yellow with age. I’ve also got gallons of geums – Geum Coral Tempest  and Geum Totally Tangerine. Lovely grasses, a ginger plant and an orange Calla lily round my hot corner off nicely. 

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You get the gist – plants which are red, orange or yellow need only apply!

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As part of the creation of this hot corner, I moved my pale mauve bearded irises and replaced them with much hotter-coloured varieties … Old Hall and Red Kite.  Bearded irises are a passion of mine but I do concede that they can look ‘all leaves’. Also, they can take a season or two to get going. So to add extra zing to where they are planted, I’m sowing Calendula Nova (English marigolds) directly into the area – another October job.

Some annuals like these can be directly sown outdoors between August and October. So if you haven’t already done this and want to, grab your chance.

I’m not a huge marigold fan, but I think this hardy annual will add just a bit of early extra colour next year in case the irises take a while to hit their stride.

#4 Sow Perennials Outdoors

I’m a big believer in letting the plants tell you where they should be. For instance in my hot corner a gorgeous orange California poppy took seed and flourished. I didn’t plant it, but there it was! It continued to flower merrily all summer long – the perfect colour for my colour scheme and looking very happy!

So I’m taking that as a big hint from nature and am sowing California Poppies in the area – again these can be planted directly outdoors from August to October. So I’m giving that a go.

With all direct sowing at this time of year, there’s a risk that plants won’t survive a very harsh winter. But for the price of a couple of packets of seeds, I think it’s worth the gamble, to have some additional garden colour in May next year.

#5 Plant Spring Flowering Bulbs

There’s no doubt that much of the activity and fun to be had at this time of year is from planting Spring flowering bulbs. My garden jobs for October include planting bluebells and crocuses all in the grass, and alliums (purple Sensation) in my beds. I’m also planting dwarf irises in smaller pots. There are obviously so many others you can do at this time – daffodils, snowdrops, muscari (grape hyacinth), puschkinia, fritillaries etc. “Fill yer boots” as my old friend Sylvia used to say!

#6 Pot Preparation for Tulips

Many peoples’ bulb favourites are tulips. I won’t plant mine until November or December, after the first frost. However I do need to get my pots ready for them. That means some decionmaking, and I do this in October.

As some of you will know I grow a lot of perennials in pots. Many of these I grow from cuttings which I’ve taken in September/October. I transition the cuttings to larger pots in the Spring, where they continue to grow, looking wonderful on my patio all summer.

When I divide perennials such as Achillea or geraniums in the Spring I will often also put a bit of the plant in a pot – why not!

But in October I need to make a decision. Do I keep all these perennials in their pots as they are? Do I put them in a larger pot with something else to create a wonderful combination, (like my Gaura and foxgloves)? Or do I plant them out in the garden?

If I’m going to plant them out in the garden, all the experts say October is a good time to do it. The soil is moist from the rain but still warm. So this is definitely one of my garden jobs for October.

So I spend a LOT of time messing about with my pots, thinking about them, because unless you are going to constantly buy new pots, rotating your containers is important.

My husband sometimes catches me staring at them and asks ‘are you actually gardening?’ I most definitely am. That thinking, visualising, imagining time is crucial to me, and October is the month to do it if I’m going to have homes for my tulips!

My Top 7 Garden Jobs for October…finally

#7 Lawn – Yawn!

Confession time…my ‘lawn’ is rubbish. I could say that it’s deliberately awful, full of clover etc as I want to make it more wildlife friendly. But the reality is that while wildlife is really important to me, my lawn is dreadful because I’m not very good at it! I’m also not very interested in it. Maintaining a lawn feels like housework to me, and I’m not very good at that either!

However, one of my resolutions is to try and do better with the lawn this year. That means my garden jobs for October include giving it a jolly good rake and aerating the lawn with a fork. To you and me that means pushing a garden fork about 10cm deep into the soil every 10cm and gently waggling it back and forth on the fork handle. Apparently the prongs open up the soil, allowing the roots to breathe and encouraging the grass to regrow.

My eyes are glazing over as I write this but I promise to have a go. Looking at the size and state of my lawn, I better stop writing this and get out there!!