Your monthly gardening Guide ~ 5 jobs for October
If you’re new to the monthly gardening guide, a very warm welcome.
Each month, avid gardener, Jenny from @thelaundrygarden shares her top 5 gardening tips for the month.
Jenny and her husband Tom tend to just under 3 acres of breath-taking garden, including a stunning 1-acre walled garden.
If you missed last month’s blog, you can read it by clicking here.
Over to you Jenny…
There’s something comforting about October. .. shorter days, cooler nights, and best of all, the stunning colour changes of leaves on the trees.
At this time of year, there are some wonderful places to visit around the UK, to see the amazing spectacles of autumn colours. Cholmondeley Castle Gardens in Cheshire is one of our favourites and offers this in abundance.
After a day working in the garden, we often find ourselves discussing plans for the year ahead, over supper. Pouring over magazines, books and catalogues for inspiration.
We always like to have a project in the pipeline and October is the ideal month to get started while the ground is still warm, and the dry hot days have passed, helping plants to get off to a good start.
Here are your jobs for October.
~ 1. Clear leaves ~
Depending on the size of your garden and how many trees you have (or your neighbours!) depends on how much leaf clearing you’ll have to do!
We have approx. 1 acre of woodland with a few trees that overhang into the walled garden, so the leaf clearing can be quite a mammoth job here.
The important thing about collecting fallen leaves is that once rotted down they make incredible leaf mould that is garden gold!
All you need to do is store them in a sack and let them rot down. This can take anything from 1 year to 3 years depending on the leaf size, so by chopping them up through a shredder or hoovering them through a mower, you can speed up the process. Here are a few ideas on how to store them
~ 2. Cut back perennials ~
These are the plants that produce flowers then turn brown and if cut to the ground at the right time will throw up new shoots and flower again the following year.
There are some people that like to keep a nice regimented tidy garden, and that’s great.
Then there are others, like me, who prefer to be selective and leave some seed heads from the spent flowers until the early spring. By doing this the birds can pick at the seed heads for food. I also love to see their magical glistening look when the frosts arrive. Here’s a link to show you what to do.
~ 3. Keep weeding! ~
Probably one of my favourite jobs! It’s well worth going over places throughout the garden and just fine-tuning it here and there, especially in areas that you know where you have planted bulbs. There’s nothing worse than trying to weed in between them once they’re out of the ground!
~ 4. Lift and divide Perennials ~
This is one of the ideal months for this job.
If you have some plants that have outgrown their space, have stopped flowering or have a gap in the centre of the plant, now is the moment to revive them. My rule of thumb is if it’s still flowering now then leave the dividing until spring. Here’s some ways and what to divide now.
~ 5. Lay turf ~
One of our projects that we are starting this month is to lay some turf.
The reason now is such a good time, is because the turf is perishable. In the heat of the summer months, it can deteriorate in a matter of hours! As it’s now a little cooler, the turf will live for an extra 24hrs after harvesting. Also, this time of year we are mowing less frequently, so once it has all been laid you won’t need to mow it until the spring, giving it time to establish. Here are some helpful ways to get you started.
~ THIS MONTH’S BOOK RECOMMENDATION ~
The Flower Hunter: Seasonal flowers inspired by nature and gathered from the garden
~ THIS MONTH’S INSTAGRAM PROFILE TO FOLLOW ~
Another fantastic list of super helpful gardening tips from Jenny there! I’m sure the bit about enjoying weeding must be a typo though!!!
Thank you again, Jenny. You have taught me and so many others, so much about gardening over the past 10 months.
Other useful info
If you’re reading this as a beginner gardener you may find this blog (also written by the lovely, Jenny) really helpful ~ 5 quick gardening tips for beginners.
Within the 3 acres of land that Jenny and her husband Tom, care for, they have also built The Laundry Retreat.
The retreat consists of 2 luxury roundhouses that have been specifically designed just for adults. Offering a wonderfully romantic setting, in a beautiful rural location.
We were extremely lucky to have the opportunity to stay in one of the roundhouses and you can read all about our stay here.
And finally, if you enjoyed reading this blog do scroll to the bottom to subscribe.
Once subscribed, you’ll receive an email when a new blog is published, so you never miss a blog post again.
Leave a Reply