October in our garden – a garden diary

18th October 2020 Lisa 76 Comments

“The trees are in their autumn beauty, The woodland paths are dry, Under the October twilight the water Mirrors a still sky.” Thank you, W.B. Yeats, I can’t think of a better quote to welcome in October in our garden this month. Our shrubs and trees are glowing with a pyrotechnic mix of golds, reds, oranges, yellows and green. And the last part about water mirroring the sky is especially apt, as you’ll see if you read on. Clickbait, moi? Mais oui 🙂

What’s flowering this October?

Our stalwart dahlias are still flowering their hearts out and should continue to do so until the first frosts. The beautiful crimson sparkler in this month’s cover picture is just stunning against the acid green of the conifer behind her. And my gorgeous pale pink Penhill Watermelon dahlia is still giving me blooms for the house every week. But they’re not the only colour in the garden, just look at these vibrant purple and pink salvias. Perfect late season nectar for the bees as well.

In one of the cutting beds we have another red dahlia – some sort of tangerine variety, I think, but as the label’s long gone, so has my recall. And next to her, a rather lovely South African thistle (Berkheya purpurea) that thinks she’s a sunflower! I sowed some seeds about three years ago but this is the first year she’s flowered, which is very late as she’s supposed to do so in July/August. No matter, she’s beautiful, and I hope she self-seeds now she’s established.

October in our garden - purple sunflower

Still on the purple front, our lovely Geranium Rozanne and pretty asters are giving such a beautiful burst of colour against all the green. Both are perennials and both come back every year now they’re established, they are complete joys.

October in our garden - geranium rozanne

One of my favourite things about gardening is when Nature steps in and gives you a helping hand. On the left is the most beautiful self-seeded purple malva or mallow by one of our benches. The photo doesn’t do her justice, her petals are like crushed velvet, both in tone and feel. And on the right, in our greenhouse, is a lovely self-seeded yellow calendula which sneaked in behind the tomatoes. Only one bloom as yet, but she lights up the greenhouse at this time of year.

October in our garden - yellow calendula

Talking of lighting up darker places, here’s another of my favourite shade-dwelling geraniums. This little purple star is geranium nodosum and she too comes back every year underneath our conifer hedges. And buried underneath all the leaves, we have one solitary, slightly insect nibbled, yellow nasturtium flower. So pretty, don’t you think?

October in our garden - purple geranium nodosum

October in our garden - yellow nasturtium

What’s fruiting this October?

October in our garden is a great month for harvesting. Our grapevine’s fruits have ripened now and I’m glad to say the birds are enjoying all the grapes. We can eat them as well but prefer our grapes without pips (so fussy, I know) so we tend to leave these for the wildlife. And our rhubarb is still going great guns, much to Alan’s dismay as he says he’s had enough of rhubarb for one year.

We’ve harvested all our pears now and we had a bumper crop this year, we were very lucky. And you might recall from last month that I was very excited about our kiwis. They were a pain to peel but very sweet and juicy. Another fruit that’s not the easiest to eat is quince. We have one solitary fruit on our chaenomeles (Japanese quince) tree but rather than waste it, I’m going to use it in the next batch of apple sauce I make. Apparently quince improves the flavour – thank you for that tip, Gardeners World 🙂 Although it will have to be a small batch of apple sauce as our new Braeburn only has three apples!

Indoor garden jobs for October

I think I really have picked my last bowl of tomatoes now. Bearing in mind we’ve had between one and two large bowls of tomatoes every week since the beginning of August, I think they’ve more than delivered. And Alan’s chillies have also yielded plenty of fruits. So it’s time to cut down the vines and clear out the greenhouse, ready for overwintering our tender plants that can’t be left outside. But, rather than waste all the green tomatoes and little chillies that are left, I’ve found a recipe for green tomato and chilli chutney, which I will attempt over half-term. I’ve never made chutney before, so wish me luck!

Outdoor garden jobs for October

Last month I planted out some rather shrivelled potato tubers, more in hope than expectation. But here we are, they are growing away quite happily. I’ll have to keep earthing up around each plant but who knows, we might yet be harvesting new potatoes on Christmas Day <grin>.

Other outdoor jobs this October include pruning back all our climbing roses as hard as possible. Not a job I’m looking forward to, they are vicious. You want to cut back to a skeleton, with no crossing stems to help them produce their best blooms. And I’ll also be planting out some Spring bulbs as soon as my bulk order of alliums, irises, tulips and narcissi arrives. One job I must remember to do is replace the grease bands * on our plum tree. It’s to reduce the number of winter moth caterpillars in the spring as the bands stop the wingless females from climbing up tree trunks and laying eggs. Nothing worse than biting into a juicy plum and finding an uninvited little wriggling guest 🙁 And last but not least, October in our garden still requires constant deadheading, pruning, tying in, weeding, and the occasional pot watering.

Wildlife

Back in August we had to lift and re-turf large patches of our lawn due to a cockchafer grub infestation. Well, the birds are attacking new patches of our lawn again so we’ll have to do some more repair work soon. The grubs are the larvae of the crane flies and every time we lift a piece of turf, you see masses of these horrid little white grubs. Yes, they’re great food for the birds but it’s all rather grim really. There’s not much we can do as pesticides that used to kill them are now banned. And applying nematodes * is hugely labour intensive and rarely works. Long term, I think we might consider turning our lawn into a dry gravel garden because I really don’t want to have to deal with this problem every year.

October in our garden - cockchafer damage

October in our garden - cockchafer infestation

But… every cloud has a silver lining. After he lifted a huuuuuuuge swathe of turf last month, I can now present Alan’s most successful garden project to date. A brand new wildlife pond, which will also be home to some small fish in due course. He dug it out, moved all the earth, fitted the liner, bought the stones and planted some new plants all by himself. I am in awe and so proud of him.

Yes, it’s still a work in progress and we’ve ordered some more pond plants * and wildflower plants (the latter from Avon Wildlife Trusts as we are members). But our garden birds are already enjoying drinking from it and bathing around the edges. And the plan is to get it finished before winter, including a pump to oxygenate the water. Then transplant our frogs and newts from the smaller ponds (which leak), let them settle, and finally add some fish. What a man, I truly am so lucky!

Flora’s garden

As I mentioned last month, Flora’s horticultural interests have come to a halt, sadly. But her garden is still thriving, and there are plenty of seeds to be harvested from her wonderful sunflowers, which are now over. And her pond is still home to at least three frogs, so perhaps her “leave it to Nature” attitude isn’t all that bad!