Gardening Works in October. Harvesting, Planting and Winter Preparations

by Laura Mitran · October 13, 2017

Autumn has well set in making it necessary to take care of your garden before it enters the winter sleep. You still have fruits and vegetables you have to harvest and you can even plant some now to have them fresh early next year. Gardening works in October can be a handful, so you should get going to have the work done in time.

Flower garden

Take out the dahlia, begonia and sword lily bulbs and keep them in a dry room over winter.
Most spring flowers bulbs should be planted in the first part of the month, except for tulips which can be planted until the beginning of November.
It’s the best time to plant ornamental trees, shrubs and hedge.
To keep your garden colorful, you can plant mums, winter pansies, ornamental cabbage and flowering kale.
Remove and destroy fallen rose leaves to prevent disease among your bushes.

Gardening works in October. Vegetable garden

Finish harvesting beans and peas. When you are finished, simply cut the plant just above the ground, leaving the roots below. This way the nitrogen inside is gradually released while the root goes into decay.
Harvest pumpkins and squash before the first frost. They soften quickly if left outside.
If you have tomatoes or peppers left, just bring the whole plant inside and hang it upside down for them to finish ripening.
Plant onion and garlic for a rich harvest next summer.
Sow sweet peas and green salad under glass containers.
It’s also best to plant mushroom spores now.

Gardening works in October. The orchard

Remove all the rotten fruit from the branches or the ground, as they carry infections that can affect your next year’s harvest too.
Wash the fruit trees trunk and branches to destroy any pests that could hibernate there over winter.
Cut off overgrown raspberry shoots to prevent them from being torn by winter winds.
Autumn is the best season to plant fruit trees.

Prepping the soil

Reuse compost and spread it as much as you can in the garden.
Continue mowing the lawn as long as there is grass growth and collect cut grass, dry leaves and other plant debris to make compost.
After harvesting everything, plant clover, soy and tare to burry them into the ground next spring. They will help control weed proliferation during winter and will be a good source of nitrogen next spring.
If the soil is very dried, water the garden well before the ground freezes.

Credits: agroland.ro, gradinamea.ro, decostyle.mayra.ro