14/10/2026
🍁October is the month you put the garden to bed, and the work you do now decides how easy next spring will be.
🌧️The first light frosts arrive in late October or early November, the days lose about two hours of light, and the Atlantic rain sets in. Soil left bare and wet will slump, lose nutrients and fill with weeds by March.
✅ Here's your October list:
🥔 Finish the harvest
Lift maincrop potatoes on a dry day once the foliage has died back, and leave them on the soil for two or three hours so the skins harden. Store only sound tubers in paper or hessian sacks in a dark, cool, frost-free shed. Light turns them green and plastic makes them sweat and rot.
Parsnips taste sweeter after a frost, so leave them in the ground. Carrots and beetroot keep better indoors: twist off the leaves and pack them in boxes of damp sand. Cure pumpkins and squash for 10 to 14 days on a sunny windowsill or in the tunnel. Wrap the last green tomatoes in newspaper with a ripe banana nearby, or turn them into chutney.
🌿 Turn your compost
Fork the heap across and put the dry outer layer in the middle, where it is warmest. Good compost feels like a wrung-out sponge. If it's dry, water each layer. If it's wet and smells sour, mix in torn cardboard, straw or dry leaves. Cover the heap with old carpet, a tarp or a lid to keep the rain off.
🍂And don't bin your leaves: pack them damp into black bin bags, pierce a few holes and leave them behind the shed. In 12 to 18 months you'll have leaf mould, one of the best free soil improvers there is.
🏡 Clean the polytunnel
Aphids, whitefly, red spider mite and grey mould overwinter in old leaves, pots and dark corners. Clear out the finished plants, roots, strings and canes, then wash the cover inside and out with warm water and a little plant-based soap. Algae and grime block light your winter crops need. Then sow winter lettuce, spinach, oriental leaves or winter purslane, and open the doors on dry days.
🌱 Cover bare beds
Sow a green manure such as field beans, winter rye, vetch or phacelia to hold the soil together. If you missed the window, spread organic straw 10 to 15 cm deep, and make sure it's certified organic, as conventional straw can carry weedkiller residues. Black plastic is another option: it keeps off the rain and leaves the soil warmer and drier.
🌼 Save flower seed
Calendula, cosmos, nasturtium, sweet pea, cornflower, nigella and poppy are all easy places to start. Stick to open-pollinated varieties. Wait until the seed heads are brown and papery, pick on a dry day into paper bags, then dry the seed indoors for one to two weeks. Store it in labelled paper envelopes in a sealed jar somewhere cool, dark and dry. Most flower seed stays viable for two to three years.
🧄 Plant garlic and bulbs
Cloves planted now have longer to root and often give bigger bulbs. Push them in pointed end up, about 15 cm apart and 2 to 3 cm deep. Daffodils, crocus and alliums can go in now too, but tulips wait until November to avoid tulip fire.
🐞 One last thing: leave some hollow stems and seed heads standing. Ladybirds, solitary bees and birds use them for shelter and food over the winter.
None of it needs special equipment. A fork, a wheelbarrow, some paper bags and a few dry afternoons will carry you through.
📲 Save this post for yourself and share it with a friend who loves their garden.
