Will Harts Garden Diary, things to do in October

OCTOBER

FRUIT

· Pick any fruit.

· Store fruit in sound condition, bring down temperature by ventilating at night. Do not mix late apples in the store with early cults, and keep apples and pears separate.

· Remove broken branches from stone fruits and protect the wounds.

· Prune blackcurrants if not already done and take cuttings from healthy plants.

· Prune gooseberries, red and white currants at leaf fall, if bird damage is likely then leave the plants until spring, take cuttings

· Finish pruning blackberries and hybrid berries.

· Complete the planting of strawberries by mid October, tidy up beds and remove leaves from perpetual strawberries.

· Order new fruit trees, prepare ground for planting and begin planting immediately after leaf fall.

· Greaseband apple, pear, plum and cherry trees to trap female winter moths.

· Apply final spray at leaf fall to stone fruits against bacterial canker.

· Spray peaches and nectarines against peach leaf curl; this will serve as the mid October spray against bacterial canker.

VEGETABLES

· Outdoor tomatoes which have fail to ripen, pick them and place on trays put in a dark place with a ripe apple or red tomato to speed up the ripening process.

· Regular mowing should stop this month. Raise height of cut again for the last two cuts.

· For moss use a proprietary product containing Dichlorophen, not lawn sand at this time of year.

· Seed sowing should have been completed but the ideal time for laying turf is just starting.

· Herbaceous perennials can now be lifted, divided using two forks back to back and levering the crowns apart, plant in there new positions incorporating a little fertilizer, such as bonemeal,to assist growth the following spring.

· Bedding subjects like Wallflowers, Pansys, Bellis and Myosotis should be planted now in there final flowering positions follow this by planting bulbs such as Tulips and Hyacinths through them to give a colourful display in the spring.