There are days when October might feel like an extension of summer, with warm sunshine during the peak of the day, but temperature dropping as the sun descends is a clear indicator that the seasons are turning.

Misty morning

There is the danger of the first frosts at night, so it is as well to be prepared. October is the month for harvesting hard-skinned cucurbits such as squashes and pumpkins before they are damaged by frost.

Squashes curing

It is also worth protecting the crowns of plants like Gunnera and tree ferns where next year’s growing tips can damaged by cold wet weather over the winter.

Now is the time for buying spring bulbs and for the vast majority the earlier you get the bulbs in the ground the better. The roots will start to develop quickly in the warm ground and the bulbs will establish quickly. It is best to hold off planting tulips in open ground until November to minimise the chances of bulbs being affected by the fungal disease tulip fire.

While you are thinking about spring bulbs, take a moment to look at your autumn beds. Are there gaps in your autumn garden that could be cheered up by the addition of autumn-flowering bulbs (autumn Crocuses, Cyclamens, Colchicums, Nerines etc) next year?

Nerines in October

Continuing with the theme of brightening up the shorter days; October is also a good time to plant up containers with winter bedding, to put splashes of colour around spots like doorways, where you’ll be passing by on a regular basis. Really fill up the containers with planting, the plants won’t grow that much over the winter so you don’t need to leave much room for them to grow on. If you’re going to use perennials, for example ornamental grasses, these can be re-used in summer containers or planted out in the garden next year so that you maximise the value you get out of the plants. Putting spring bulbs in winter containers will give you an extra burst of interest next spring, to welcome the lengthening days.

As roses slow down and start to lose their foliage, if you had any blackspot, make sure that you clear away all infected leaves so that the spores cannot over-winter by the plants.

As plants like Cornus and Forsythia go dormant you can take hardwood cuttings to increase your stocks. With the topsy turvey weather it might be that later in the season is better; just wait until a few weeks after leaf fall.

In the kitchen garden you can get overwintering onion sets and garlic on the way. We tend to start onions in cells and then transplant the young plants once they have developed a good root system.

Onion sets

Looking forward to next year’s harvests, if you put grease or glue traps on fruit trees it should help to ensure that you get fewer maggoty apples.