We’ve had another lovely autumn day, October and the sky is a brilliant blue, the sun is warm and the wind though gusty is mild. Gardens must be loving this clement weather. We really must get out and tidy our garden, it is rather a disgrace at the moment, but maybe it will be easier to clear stuff away as the foliage dies back.
Looking at my dad’s old gardening book, the tasks for October are mainly along the clearing, tidying and getting the garden ready for winter.
There’s lots of clearing – asparagus beds, summer flowers and old hotbeds, much lifting and storing of celeriac carrots and beet, gladiolus corms, dahlia tubers and bedding begonias, and parsley, mint etc. As you can imagine there’s cleaning, especially of lawns and paths, a bit of trimming, some greasing of bands, and some potting up.
This time of year is the gardener’s New Year, so there is a lot of preparation – of the ground, of glass, of holes in the ground for various things, and some pricking out and planting, not to mention a spot of forcing – rhubarb that is! Despite us heading towards winter, the busy gardener is actually sowing seeds – corn salad, dwarf early peas, lettuces, radishes, mustard and cress… There’s plenty to do!
I won’t be doing much of that – I’ll be cutting back the brambles, trimming the hedges, weeding between the flags, digging over and clearing the raised beds, tidying the patch where the raspberries used to grow – for some reason they weren’t a success this year – maybe we need new canes. Yes, I’ll think about having a lovely harvest of raspberries to look forward to next year as I tidy the beds!
Lois Elsden 