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Autumn Gardening Preparation Checklist: What to do in October

Autumn Gardening Preparation Checklist: What to do in October

October marks the true arrival of autumn, with cooler mornings and the first signs of frost in some areas. The garden is changing—leaves are falling, and summer crops are reaching their end. This is the time to prepare your garden for the colder months, bringing in the last of the harvest, tidying up, and protecting plants to ensure they make it through winter.

This guide will walk you through essential October gardening tasks, from planting spring bulbs to preserving wildlife habitats and making sustainable choices with your Halloween pumpkins. Don’t forget to download our Gardening Monthly Checklist Template to stay organised and make the most of your garden this season! 

Make the Most of Your Halloween Decor

As Halloween approaches, millions of pumpkins will be purchased across the UK, most of which will be carved into spooky faces and discarded shortly after. But before you toss your pumpkin in the bin, consider how you can extend its life and make the most of it both in and out of the kitchen.

Creative Ways to Decorate and Preserve Your Pumpkin

Instead of carving your pumpkin, try decorating it with a black marker pen, googly eyes, or paper and cardboard. This will preserve the pumpkin for longer and allow you to enjoy it well beyond Halloween. If you do prefer to carve, avoid cutting off the top—removing the stem shortens the life of any fruit or vegetable. Instead, make your cut at the back or bottom to help the pumpkin last longer.

Pumpkin in the Kitchen: Nutritious and Versatile

Pumpkin flesh is incredibly versatile and packed with nutrients, making it a valuable addition to your autumn recipes. It’s rich in potassium, which helps lower blood pressure, and magnesium, which can promote better sleep. The possibilities are endless, from savoury soups and stews to sweet treats like pancakes. You can also create a delicious homemade pumpkin spiced latte by blending pumpkin puree with coffee, milk, cinnamon, and maple syrup—a perfect warm treat for the season.

Beyond the Kitchen: Repurposing and Composting

If you’ve carved your pumpkin, don’t let the remains go to waste. Repurpose it as a bird feeder by cutting it in half, scooping out the flesh and seeds (which you can save for cooking or planting), and piercing a hole near the top. Thread some wire through the hole, hang the pumpkin from a tree, and fill the hollowed-out centre with bird seed. This attracts birds to your garden and gives your pumpkin a second life.

Composting is another excellent way to use up every part of your pumpkin. Chop up the skin and stalk into smaller pieces to help them decompose faster, and mix them well with other garden waste in your compost bin. If you don’t have a compost bin, you can still recycle your pumpkin by cutting it up, removing the seeds, and burying it directly in your garden to provide nutrients for other plants. By thinking creatively and using every part of your pumpkin, you can reduce waste and enjoy all the benefits this autumn staple offers.

Bulb Planting for Spring

October is the perfect time to plant spring-flowering bulbs like narcissi, daffodils, dwarf irises, crocuses, and alliums. Planting early in autumn gives these bulbs time to establish strong roots before winter. Tulips can wait until November, as they prefer cooler soil. Snowdrops are best planted "in the green" after they’ve flowered in spring, avoiding the risk of desiccation from dry bulbs.

Planting in Containers and the Ground

Good drainage is essential, especially in containers where bulbs are more prone to rot. Choose pots with adequate drainage holes, fill one-third with peat-free compost, and plant the bulbs closely but not touching. Consider repurposing large containers like metal dustbins as planters for a creative touch. They provide ample space for a striking display at a fraction of the cost of traditional containers. Water thoroughly and place the pots in a sheltered spot over winter. Containers offer flexibility, allowing you to move them around your garden or patio for the best display. When planting bulbs in the ground, group them in clusters and ensure the soil is suitable. For lawn bulbs, let the foliage grow for at least six weeks after flowering to feed next year’s blooms.

Ensuring Healthy Growth

If your bulbs start to fade after a few years, they may have been planted too shallow, faced too much competition from grass, or had their foliage cut back too soon after blooming. Feed your bulbs with fish, blood, and bonemeal during their flowering period to keep them thriving. This helps them form the flowers for the next season, ensuring a vibrant display year after year.

Keep Harvesting Vegetables

Even as the days grow shorter and temperatures drop, your vegetable garden can still be highly productive in early October. Many summer crops, such as lettuces, rocket, runner beans, fennel, spinach, and turnips, continue to thrive, providing fresh produce as autumn sets in. However, with light levels decreasing, growth will naturally slow down, so it’s important to keep harvesting regularly to make the most of what’s left in your garden.

Sowing Green Manure for Soil Health

As you harvest, consider how to extend the growing season and prepare for the months ahead. Early October is an excellent time to sow grazing rye as a green manure. This cover crop is particularly beneficial because it improves soil structure, prevents erosion, and adds organic matter when it's turned into the soil in spring. Grazing rye also helps suppress weeds, making your garden easier to manage during the next planting season.

Extending the Growing Season in Greenhouses

If you have a greenhouse or polytunnel, you can enjoy fresh salad greens well into the colder months. Beds that previously housed summer crops like tomatoes can be replanted with hardy varieties such as corn salad (lamb’s lettuce) or additional rocket. These crops are well-suited to cooler temperatures and will provide a steady supply of salad leaves throughout autumn and winter. Corn salad, in particular, is highly resistant to frost and can thrive with minimal care, making it an ideal choice for off-season growing.

In addition to extending your harvest, consider preparing your garden for the next growing season. Clean up any plant debris to reduce the risk of pests and diseases overwintering in your garden. Mulching around your vegetables can help retain moisture, suppress weeds, and protect the roots of your plants as temperatures continue to drop.

Autumn Garlic Planting

Autumn is the ideal time to plant garlic, giving it the cold period it needs to develop into large, flavourful bulbs by next summer. Choose a sunny, well-drained spot in your garden to get the best results. Garlic thrives in soil that doesn’t retain too much moisture, as soggy conditions can lead to rot. If your soil is heavy or clay-like, consider starting your garlic cloves in modules or pots to allow them to establish roots before transplanting them into the ground later.

Planting Garlic Cloves

Before planting, prepare the soil by removing any weeds that could compete with your garlic for nutrients and light. After clearing the area, firm the soil and work in a general-purpose fertiliser to provide essential nutrients to support the garlic's growth over the coming months.

To plant, separate the garlic bulb into individual cloves, keeping the papery skins intact. Plant each clove about 15 cm apart, with the pointed tip facing upwards. The cloves should be buried with their tips about 2 cm below the soil surface. After planting, water the area thoroughly to help the cloves settle into the soil. Once this initial watering is done, garlic typically doesn’t require much more water until spring, as the autumn and winter rains usually provide enough moisture.

Ensuring a Successful Spring and Summer Harvest

As the garlic begins to sprout in early spring, keeping the area weed-free is crucial, as weeds can rob garlic of the nutrients it needs to thrive. Applying a mulch of well-rotted organic matter around the shoots will help suppress weeds, retain moisture, and slowly feed the plants as they grow. Garlic bulbs will swell rapidly in the warmer spring months, and by June or July, your patience will be rewarded with a large harvest of homegrown garlic. Proper planting and care in the autumn months set the foundation for a healthy, productive garlic crop, ensuring that you’ll have plenty of fresh garlic to enjoy throughout the following year.

Balancing Cleanup with Wildlife Preservation

As you tidy up your garden in October, it's important to strike a balance between maintaining a neat space and preserving habitats for wildlife. Some areas need thorough cleaning, while others should be undisturbed to support beneficial insects and animals through winter.

What to Clear Away

Begin by gathering dead leaves from your lawn and around sensitive plants. These leaves can smother the grass and harbour diseases, so it’s best to remove them. Lift and relocate less hardy plants to a well-ventilated, frost-free area where they can thrive next year. Clear annual and perennial weeds, as they can harbour pests and scatter seeds throughout your garden beds and borders. If you have a pond, remove decaying foliage before it sinks and deteriorates the water quality, which can harm the creatures living there. Additionally, take the time to declutter your greenhouse by moving bamboo canes and other items that might serve as hiding spots for pests like red spider mites. These mites can overwinter in warm, dry conditions and become problematic in the following growing season.

What to Leave Behind for Wildlife

While cleaning up certain areas is important, consider leaving some garden elements intact to support local wildlife. The hollow stems and spent flowers of herbaceous perennials and grasses provide a sanctuary for overwintering insects, including aphid predators. Creating a log pile near a hedge or behind a shed can offer shelter for grubs and insects and a food source for mammals.

Ivy flowers are another crucial resource, offering a rare nectar source for bees during the winter months. Resist the urge to trim your ivy until spring to ensure these early pollinators have what they need. Finally, leaving a few spent leaves and foliage on your garden beds can enrich the soil and provide protection for ground-dwelling beetles and other insects that overwinter in your garden.

Wrapping Up Your October Garden

October is a month of transition, where preparation is key to ensuring your garden thrives through the winter and bursts back to life in spring. From planting bulbs and harvesting the last of your vegetables to making the most of your Halloween pumpkins, these tasks will set the stage for a healthy, vibrant garden year-round. Keep up with your gardening checklist, and you’ll enjoy the rewards of your hard work for months to come!
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