Surely the October spectacle as the leaves on the trees change colour is one of the best of the gardening year. The autumn tidy-up heralds winter not far away and while there is less work to be done in the garden there will be fallen leaves to clear and borders to be prepared. It’s best to get the leaves up regularly so they don’t smother young plants but it does no harm, more good, to let leaves in mature borders rot down.
Depending on how cold it’s getting in your area, this month will probably be the last chance to scarify, aerate and top dress the lawn, followed by an autumn lawn feed of a low nitrogen fertiliser. We’re reaching the end of the need to mow and the height of the deck or mower cut should be two to three centimetres or an inch in old money.
Q. We have a lot of weeds in the lawn. Can we apply weedkiller now to get rid of them?
It’s time to complete earthing up celery and leeks and lift main crop potatoes, letting them dry before storing. You can still sow some hardy lettuce in frames for next spring and plant out spring cabbages, grown from seed in August. If you have main crop apples harvest them now. Under glass, plant cauliflowers grown from seed and protect late crops with cloches and fleece.
A warming dish for four on a chilly October evening, all cooked in about forty minutes. You’ll need a gratin dish to cook it in.