October is a really busy month in the garden. As the season changes to Autumn, now is the perfect time to reassess your borders, fill gaps, add bulbs and improve the condition of your soil.
Here's my top jobs for this month.
Plant Spring flowering bulbs
Now is the time to plant all your flowering bulbs including Narcissi, Tulips, Muscari and Fritillaria to ensure a burst of Spring time colour. Always plant the bulbs 3 times as deep as it's size and pointy end up.
2. Make leaf mould
Put all those fallen Autumn leaves to good purpose. Collect them up and put them in a bin bag and leave to rot down into leaf mould. This makes a great mulch and soil conditioner once it has formed, which usually takes around a year.
3. Plant and Transplant Shrubs
With the warm soil and higher rainfall, October is a great time to plant new shrubs or transplant shrubs in the wrong position or that have outgrown their space. Here's a newly planted Cornus alba Elegantissima in my E2 Canalside planting design this week.
4. Lawn care
Our lawns have taken a battering this Summer with the prolonged drought and record temperatures. With the recent rain, many have recovered to their former state but October is a great time for a little extra care and attention with aeration with a spade (shown above), scarifying with a rake to remove any dead thatch and top dressing with lawn dressing.
5. Mulch
Mulching twice yearly is really important to improve the structure of the soil, help reduce water evaporation and suppress weeds. Use composted bark, leaf mould or mushroom compost at 5cm depth and leave a ring of soil exposed around the stems to avoid any rot.
I hope you enjoy October in the garden.