Paul GarganWhen October arrives the trees start to take on firey hues and light up the countryside like torches leading us towards winter.
Continue cutting your lawn even though grass growth has slowed. Growth will continue when the weather is good and the soil temperatures stay above the critical six degrees Celsius.
Towards the end of the month raise the height of the blades and if growth allows, reduce mowing to every two weeks. Rake up any fallen leaves and compost them or if there is only a small amount let the lawn mower take care of them. This is probably the best way to remove them as it mixes up both brown and green matter for the compost heap.
If blackspot has been a problem on your roses this summer – it was for a lot of gardeners due to the warm and wet conditions – now is the time to try and prevent it becoming a problem for next year. Spend a few minutes picking off all the leaves showing any sign of disease and collect all fallen leaves from surrounding soil. Bin or burn the leaves – do not compost them.
Blackspot is a fungal disease. Its spores drop to the ground and overwinter on fallen leaves. By spreading a generous mulch of homemade garden compost over the surrounding area you can prevent spores being splashed onto new shoots next year, to re-infect your roses.
Prune climbing roses during October. Vigorous climbing roses can support three or four main stems. These can be trained into a framework, from which the sideshoots that bear the flowers will grow. You should leave each main stem in place for up to five years, cutting out one of the oldest every two to three years to encourage growth low down. Doing this now will divest some of the plants’ energy into a vigorous new bud that will grow into a shoot.
Your main pruning task now is to cut back the side shoots on the main framework first, remove any dead, damaged or weak shoots where they arise from the main stems. Then prune the strong sideshoots on the framework down to two or three buds from their base. These will break into growth in spring, channelling energy into vigorous stems with healthy foliage and large flowers next summer.
Plant spring bulbs if you haven’t already. Also now is the time to plant hyacinths and tulips. As a general rule of thumb plant bulbs at three times their depth. Lift and store gladioli bulbs when the foliage is dying down but before frost, leave dahlia tubers till the foliage is blackened by frost before lifting and storing in a dry frost-free shed till spring.