October, Tidy Up and Set Up

October is tidy-up-and-set-up month — clearing what’s finished, and quietly setting the stage for spring while the soil’s still warm enough to work.

Sow now (outdoors)

Broad beans for an overwintered head start (in milder areas). Green manures on cleared beds.

Plant out

Tulip bulbs (better planted now than earlier — a later start reduces disease risk). Bare-root fruit trees, roses, and hedging can begin once nurseries have them in stock. Spring cabbage if you haven’t already.

Harvest

The last apples and pears. Pumpkins and squash before the first hard frost. Root veg — carrots, beetroot, swede — can often stay in the ground a little longer, especially with a straw mulch.

Prune

Deciduous shrubs once they’ve dropped their leaves, if needed. Cut back perennials that have finished, though leaving some seed heads over winter helps wildlife.

General jobs

Rake up fallen leaves and turn them into leaf mould — genuinely one of the best free soil improvers you can make. Clean and put away summer pots and supports. Protect tender container plants before the first frost. If you have a pond, get a net over it now, before leaf-fall gets going properly — decomposing leaves foul the water and starve it of oxygen over winter.

This weekend

Get your leaves into a bin bag or wire cage now rather than later — a season’s worth of leaf mould takes a year or two to break down, so the earlier you start, the sooner it’s ready.

The first frost typically arrives earlier in the North, Scotland, and Northern Ireland than in the South — worth checking your local risk before leaving anything tender out.