This is the OCTOBER installment of Horticulture Week's month-by-month guide to essential maintenance and management tasks for parks, gardens and grounds maintenance staff.
Office
- Update pesticide records
- Update sowing records
- Check chainsaws and staff training or establish contacts with contractors ahead of winter gales
- Plan for renovations of furniture, fences, walls and statuary
General
- Clear autumn debris as it arises
- Prepare compost bins/bays for autumn debris and cleared material
- Dig over empty areas
Trees, shrubs and hedges
- Inspect for wind damage and check ties and stakes
- Rake up fallen leaves and compost
- Move evergreen shrubs
- Prepare ground for planting bare-root stock
- Plant evergreen and deciduous hedges
- Take hardwood cuttings of deciduous shrubs such as buddleja, escallonia, forsythia and philadelphus
- Clip conifer hedges again if necessary
- Collect berries/seeds
Beds and borders
- Cut back and divide overgrown perennials
- Label, lift and store dahlias, gladioli and summer-flowering bulbs
- Finish planting spring bedding
- Lift and store tender perennials
- Sow sweat peas under cover
- This is a good time for constructing new beds and re-stocking tired borders
Wall plants
- Finish pruning climbing roses
- Plant container-grown climbing plants
Bulbs
- Plant lily and tulip bulbs
- Label, lift and store tender summer-flowering bulbs
- Finish planting spring-flowering bulbs
Containers
- Move indoors if necessary and insulate large pots
- Plant with spring bedding and bulbs
Greenhouses and conservatories
- Thoroughly clean inside and out
- Scrub down benches
- Check glass and putty
- Apply insulation if necessary
- Continue venting on warm days
- Inspect plants regularly
- Bring in citrus fruit trees
*Jobs should only be undertaken when ground and weather conditions are suitable and will vary according to location and may vary significantly from year to year. And remember that while the year nicely divides into 12 months, activities often overlap.
