Octobers Autumn Garden Jobs
October marks the first full month of autumn. Meaning we wave goodbye to any warm evenings and lighter nights and say hello to wet gardens and well-watered flowers. Just because the sun has faded and the growth in the garden has slowed, doesn’t mean that there aren’t still important jobs to get done. So where do we start?
Clean Up Your Tools
When spring rolls back around you will thank us for this little reminder. There is very little worse than coming to your tools at the start of the spring season and finding them with old garden debris sticking out of them, and patches of rust where they were put away wet. So once you have used your tools this month, spend some time drying them off (and adding blade oil where necessary) before they head for the shed. Remember to put them away neatly too!
Spending this extra hour or so will save you both time and money when it comes to using the tools again. Just pop a jumper on when it gets a bit colder.
Leafy Business
We all know that autumn is the time where leaves fall and take over our garden. So to stop them from destroying our garden, we need to start combatting them at the start of the season. When leaves start to fall, remember to rake up your leaves from both grass and your flower beds. While rotten leaves can be used to make mulch, leaving them to rot in place can cause more damage to your plants, and kill your grass. Collect your leaves into a compost bin where possible. Alternatively, you can collect your leaves into bin liners, with a few holes punched in, and allow them to mulch.
Remember to keep an eye on your ponds and water features. Falling leaves can greatly impact the water quality and cause issues leading into the winter.
A Splash Of Colour
Add a splash of colour into your garden ready for the long autumn and winter ahead. From borders to pots adding a splash of colour now can be the easiest way to see out the next few months with minimal input. Consider introducing heathers, cyclamen, winter pansies and skimmia for immediate colour.
Over Watering
We cannot control the weather here in the UK. And unfortunately, the start of October also sees an increase in the rainfall we expect.
We can’t avoid overwatering the majority of our gardens, however, we can help to stop pots and containers from bogging down. Ensure that your pots all have drainage holes in or near to the base (where the complete circumference of the base is against the floor, ensure there is a drainage hole away from the base, such as at the bottom of a side). If you have plastic pots, it is easy to drill a hole in if there is not an existing one. You will also want to layer the base of the pot with gravel to help drainage and stop the soil from sealing the drainage hole over.
If any plants are in danger from overwatering, you may want to move these inside or into the greenhouse until the spring.
As we come into the autumn, more of us are less inclined to want to head into the garden for general tidying and maintenance. If this sound like you, please get in touch with Abingdon’s Complete Garden Services today, and we will be happy to discuss helping out in your garden throughout the autumn and winter months. For more information on what you can do in your garden, head over to our blogs which are regularly updated.