I’m a gardener – 4 jobs you need to do in October to have a bumper crop of vegetables in spring
Mario Bautista
AUTUMN has well and truly arrived, but although it has turned cold and grey outside, there are still plenty of jobs to be done in the garden.
From sowing hardy seeds for a winter harvest, to preparing your garden for a bumper crop in the spring, gardening expert Benedict Vanheems has revealed the essential jobs you should get ticked off your list this October.
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Spring Onions
Benedict revealed that there is still time to get in a winter harvest of spring onions, if you plant them “pronto”.
“It’s important to use a really hardy variety this late in the season”, he said, in a video posted to his YouTube channel, @GrowVeg.
In order to protect the onions from the cold, you can set up a “cold frame” using an old window frame and some planks of wood.
Stick the planks lengthways around the onion plants and then stick the glass pane on top, to keep them warm.
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“When it gets cold, this will really help to protect the old onions”, he said.
Winter Lettuces
Winter lettuces are hardy varieties of lettuces, which are suitable for sowing throughout the winter.
Start off by planting them in small pots, and then move them outside once they have started to grow.
To keep them warm, you can place a plastic sheet over them, held up by plastic tubes.
“These guys will be ready to pick and enjoy by early spring”, Benedict said.
Cauliflower
Cauliflowers are another vegetable that can be grown throughout winter, and harvested in the spring.
Sow them in pots and keep them in the greenhouse, before planting them outside in the garden in the spring.
Cover Crop
Benedict revealed that now is the perfect time to sow cover crops, which are plants that give something back to the soil, by improving their structure, their fertility, or both.
Some examples of cover crops are winter tears, which will fix nitrogen at the roots for a future crop, and rye grass, which helps to break up soil and improve its structure.
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“What I love about this is that it’s creating this lovely biomass to enrich the soil, literally out of thin air”, he said.
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