18 hours Ago By [email protected] (Ryan Fahey)
A humble yet versatile vegetable can be sown now so it's ready to plant by spring. You may have thought the weather turning colder spelled an end to your homegrown vegetable pursuits , but October is actually the perfect time to get ahead in the garden . By making early sowings and plantings of vegetables, fruits and flowers, you can get a head start on the year with the added boon of earlier crops.
Cauliflower is one of the nation's most-loved vegetables, and whether it comes chopped up in curry or smothered in golden and gooey cheddar, it's sure to help keep our tummies full and warmed through the winter months. The white tree-shaped vegetable is usually harvested in the autumn, but some cultivars can be sown in October for an early-summer crop. Then by spring, they're ready to plant for their harvest in the hotter months.
You should sow them in multi-celled trays and spread them out so there's one seedling in each compartment. This should all be done under the cover of a greenhouse or cold frame. There are a number of other hardy vegetables that will use the chillier weather to their advantage.
Just like cauliflower, there are several hardy pea cultivars, including "Avola" and "Meteor", which will need to be planted in October so they can be harvested in spring. Make 5cm-deep holes in the soil to plant the pea seeds. You can also use guttering or root trainers.
If you get your skates on, planting one type of vegetable now will see you getting a small harvest before the winter is out. Different kinds of salad leaves are an incredibly simple crop to grow. Planting them in October will give you some return before the chilier months are done, and then the plants will become dormant and restart growth again in March, which is when you'll have a bumper crop of fresh salad leaves.
These plants should be sown in well-prepared soil or in pots. To protect them from the worst of the cold weather, cover with a cloche or even pop them in the greenhouse. It comes after a gardening expert and content creator Pollyanna Wilkinson - who uses the handle @pollywilkinsongarden on TikTok, and boasts over 180,000 followers - listed three things gardeners need to consider this month to avoid problems next year.
She said that to start off with you should focus on some much-needed lawn care if you're lucky enough to have a patch of turf. Polly went on to explain that "scarifying is scraping the surface of the lawn to remove thatch and moss, you can do this with a rake or you can use a machine." However, don't throw the moss you collect away, the expert warns, "Be sure to hold onto some of that moss that you gather, you can use it to top pots of bulbs in the festive season.
" The expert explains, "Now is a great time to aerate and scarify your lawn. What does that mean? Aerating literally means just putting air into the lawn. You do that by stabbing holes in it.
" Polly adds there are a couple of ways you can approach this, first off by simply grabbing your garden fork and making holes throughout the turf. Another way is by wearing "jazzy aeration sandals, which have spikes on the bottom, or you can hire a machine." Once the aerating and scarifying are done, Polly advises you to sow some lawn seed onto your turf, and "gather up any leaves on the lawn, put them into a jute bag or bin liner with holes in and put it somewhere you can forget about it.
" This one will take some patience, but it is well worth the payoff, "In two years, you're going to have amazing leaf mould for the borders," which will be a powerful fertiliser and soil conditioner. The second task you should be aiming to tackle this October is planting bulbs indoors that will be perfect during the Christmas period - amaryllis, a popular gift during the festive season with stunning red blooms, and paperwhites. "I would usually plant a few now, a few in a couple of weeks, and again in a couple of weeks more, just to make sure you get a succession of indoor plants throughout December and January.
" Finally, the expert recommends that you move any evergreen shrubs in your garden this October. Polly explains this month is the "perfect" opportunity for this because "the soil is still warm and moist"..
