Garden in October

Planting

Depending on where in the country you live, the first frost may begin to creep in during October. Then it’s time to plant your frost-sensitive plants in a pot and store them in a frost-free, dry and bright area. Preferably in a conservatory or in a garage if you have the opportunity to give the plants extra lighting.

Lawn

Before the cold and snow come, it’s a good idea to rake and thoroughly clean your lawn. Maybe a final mow before the winter? When the ground temperature drops to around 7 degrees, the grass stops growing, which also means that it does not need to be mowed any more.

When you do your last lawn mowing of the season, the grass should be to a height of about 5 centimetres. If the grass is left too far during the winter, the lawn will easily suffocate if the grass is pushed down by the heavy snow.

If you have lots of leaves lying on the lawn, they should be raked up so that they don’t suffocate the grass when they accumulate in wet piles. Collect the leaves in a composter or rake them into the flowerbed or under bushes.

Flowerbeds

As mentioned above, leaves can be strewn into flowerbeds and under shrubbery. This provides some protection against the winter cold, but they also broken down by worms into nutritious mulch.

If you have perennials in the flowerbeds, you can let these wilt and leave them be, since the wilted tops protect the plants during the winter.

If you have fruit trees in your garden, you need to pick up the fallen fruit to prevent fungal diseases.

Trimming hedges

If you have a coniferous hedge, such as thuja, spruce or yew, you should trim it during the autumn after they have stopped growing. Depending on where in the country you live, you can trim your hedges either in September or October, before it gets too cold. Trimming coniferous plants requires you to be a little careful and prune only the young shoots, otherwise there is a risk the plant will wilt.