Mario Bautista
As well as making time for pruning and planting, October is a month when gardeners should think ahead.
With the weather turning, it’s important to think ahead, especially if you’ve put hard work into making your spring and summer garden bloom.
This includes thinking about how they are going to protect delicate plants from frost which is just around the corner.
Sharing advice in his blog post, Monty Don urged Britons to invest in horticultural fleece and cloches.
He also recommended bringing tender plants in and under cover before they need protection.
Monty wrote: “If you do not already possess them, invest in horticultural fleece and some cloches.
“The point is that these are only useful if you have and employ them before you need them and there is no guarantee that there will not be a hard frost in October.
“Cloches are very good for rows of vegetables, keeping them dry as well as warm and fleece is the best temporary protection against frost, either laid out over small plants or draped over shrubs and bushes.”
Monty said he leaves the ends open for some much-needed ventilation to ensure the crops and plants stay healthy.
Cloches and fleece can be purchased online as well as from local garden centres, varying in price and sizes. The gardening expert added that tender plants must be placed under cover before they need protection.
Monty said: “In my garden, this includes bananas, salvias, citrus, pomegranates, olives, pelargoniums, succulents, fuchsias, eucomis and hedychium.
“This doesn’t include dahlias and cannas, which can be left in situ until the first signs of frost damage have affected them.
“Then they can be cut back, dug up and bought indoors to check over before storing in an old potting compost in a cool, dark place where they will stay slive but not grow over winter.”
As well as thinking about protecting plants from frost, Monty urged gardeners to continue doing other jobs such as pruning and deadheading.
October is a great month to prune climbing roses which flower on shoots grown the same spring, and recommended to prune hard now.
Monty continued: “Start by removing any damaged or crossing growth or any very old wood which can be pruned right back to the ground.
“The main stems should be fanned out at an equidistance as horizontally as possible, tying them to wires or a trellis.”
