Tasks for October

Bring in pelargoniums for the winter and you can keep them going through into next year - a great way of saving your favourites, whether it's a particularly good scarlet, or some choice scented-leaf geraniums like 'Attar of Roses' with their dainty flowers and powerfully perfumed foliage. Dig plants up carefully and cut back tall, leggy shoots by about half. [...]

Grow winter salads for a supply of fresh, crunchy greens to add the taste of summer to salads and sandwiches right through the coldest winter months. The secret of keeping your salad supply going right through even the very coldest months of the year is to make the switch from summer to winter salad mixes from October onwards. You'll find [...]

Plant winter tubs as soon as the summer bedding is cleared. Biennials like wallflowers are available as bare-root bundles right now in our garden centre here, offering fantastic value: team them with cheery daffodils or tulips in matching colours for a display next spring which will take your breath away. During winter itself there's a wide selection of plants which [...]

Lift dahlia tubers as soon as the first frosts have blackened their stems and store them for winter. Dig up the fat hand-like roots carefully, making sure you don't accidentally spear them with your fork. Then brush off any excess soil and trim back the foliage to leave about 10cm of stem above the top-most tubers. Tie a label round [...]

Learn more about apples at one of the many Apple Days taking place around the country. Late autumn is the perfect time to plant an apple tree or three - you'll find an excellent selection now on sale at our garden centre here. But choose carefully: an apple tree is a long-term investment which could provide delicious crunchy fruit not [...]

Temperatures are falling, mists are rising and it's time to begin the long, slow process of putting your garden to bed. Here are the autumnal jobs to be getting on with this month: General tasks: Dig clay soils while the ground is still easy to work, leaving claggy clods exposed for the frost to break down. Rake up fallen leaves [...]