October Growing Guide

Becky_Alton
2 October 2022

Nothing says “spring “more than the colourful energy and diversity of faces than tulips, daffodils, anemones, ranunculus and alliums. The bright colours of these spring flowers can start bloom from late February all the way until April. I always buy the big bags of daffodils and the odd selection of tulips, as it's a great and quick way to get a few blooms. But, if you plan your bulbs properly now, you will be rewarded with a bountiful supply of bright blooms throughout the whole season.

The timeline for bulbs

Spring can have flowers blooming for up to ten weeks, beginning the season with snowdrops and crocus, which both do well in sun/partial shade and can be planted from early autumn. They need a certain amount of cold weather to help break the dormancy and to start flowering. Next to burst through the soil is the early tulips and scented hyacinths, which will fill the gap until the daffodils start to show.

Then we start to see the late varieties of tulips and alliums which will take you in to early summer. Be sure to plant a good amount of allium bulbs as these globe flowers will add lots of height and structure to your garden. Let’s take a closer look at these favourite spring flowers…

Dancing daffodils

Daffodils are best planted from early autumn. When you’re planting, ensure the soil is workable and plant the bulb twice the depth of the bulb with around 5- 8 inches in between bulbs. Daffodils were introduced to English gardens around the 1200’s from Egypt and Greece, and they represent the beginnings of spring to most people.

At Heligan, we have a large collection of daffodils growing in the Kitchen Garden. Here is a list of some of my favourites that you can still purchase today:

Lucifer – cultivated 1890 from Ireland. Crisp white petals with a standout red centre
Rip Van Winkle – cultivated in 1884. A beautiful sunny yellow dwarf variety with cactus flowered head which likes to appear earlier than other daffodils
Pheasant eye – cultivated in 1831. Distinctly fragrant this daffodil still grows wild in meadows stretching across Spain. Often found in colonial gardens with its opal white petals that arch back away from the red fringed centre crown

Vibrant tulips

Tulips arrived from Turkey to England in the 1500’s. During the Victorian era tulips’ popularity grew for vibrant bedding using the short bright single and double flowering varieties.

Early varieties of tulips can flower as early as March but the majority flower form April to May. They prefer a sunny spot as shade will cause the stems to grow tall & weak. Animals seem to love the taste of tulip bulbs and they can be destroyed before they even bloom. If planting in pots put some chicken wire over the top of the pots which will stop squirrels and other rodents eating the bulbs.

Awesome anenomes

Luckily in Cornwall, due to the mild temperatures we can plant anemone coronaria corms direct from September to October for an early February to April flowering. Ensure the soil is well prepared and not likely to become waterlogged during the winter months.

If you are likely to experience a few frosts in your garden, you can wait until spring to plant the corms for an early summer bloom. Before planting the corms, ensure to soak them overnight in tepid water, this will rehydrate the corm and give it the energy to start to germinate. The beautiful fern like foliage will start to show once temperatures rise in spring.

Jobs for this time of year

During the busy summer period in your garden there are so many jobs to do and keep on top of such as weeding, harvesting, watering and sowing – it’s sometimes hard to step back and start thinking about next year! But once spaces start to become empty and you can clear away plants and vegetables that have finished this is a great time to visualise what you want to do next year.

– Start looking at replenishing your seeds, see how many you have left and the dates on the back of your packets. Will they be viable, have you got enough?

– Put markers and names tags on perennials that die back in the winter period before they disappear. I know this sounds garden geeky, but it really helps also mark out with wooden lollipop sticks where you put your bulbs, this will help and prevent you pulling them out.

– In the veg patch, did you grow enough of the food you and the family loved eating? What grew well in your garden? Maybe you want to add some more perennial plants such as herbs.

– In the borders, was it colourful enough, is there enough height and different textures. What pollinators do you want to attract?

– Have you got enough water butts? Do you need to invest in some more going off the weather pattern from this year?

– Can you make your own compost? Leaf mulch? Wormery?

Planning for your future soil

A great money saving and carbon capturing move would be to create your own, compost/mulch and sowing green manure. Green manure is a cover crop that is typically sown in autumn on lots of people’s vegetable patches to help prevent any nutrients from your soil being washed away during the relentless winter rains. Their root systems will help break up any soil density. Nitrogen can be added to the soil which is super beneficial to crops or it can lift nitrogen to the surface making it more accessible to other crops which will help with growth.

Green manure can be a haven for lots of pollinators as well as perfect cover for natural predators like frogs, and beetles that feed on pests such as snails & slugs. It also helps with weeds, and it will reduce the spread due to the amount of ground cover it creates. You should cut green manure down before flowering and when the stems are still soft. Turn it back into the soil or leave on the top of the soil as a mulch and the worms will eventually work it back into the soil. Here are a few plants you can sow for green manure; Red clover (Trifolium pratense), Phacelia and Mustard greens (Brassica juncea).

Leaf mulch

Leaf mulch is gardeners’ gold, if you have a large enough garden that has lots of leaf litter from deciduous trees, collect it into a pile and let this break down by fungi. To help speed up the process you can chop up the leaves with a lawn mower or shears this will speed up the decomposing side.

Try and avoid adding evergreen leaves and conifer needles as they take a lot longer to rot down. Make sure your leaf litter pile is out of sunlight and gets a little bit of rain. Moisture and darkness help speed up the decomposing – it can take up to 2 to 3 years to make a good leaf mould. Once ready this mulch can be added around the base or your plants or on your beds & it will help with insulation from any frosts.

Composting

Composting is a great way of dealing with green waste and it’s beneficial for the environment as it helps cut down on landfill. There are a variety of different shapes and sizes for compost bins so whatever space you have you will to for a bin. Making compost is often considered complex but all you need are these four main ingredients – air, water, nitrogen and carbon.

Always position your compost bin in an easy access location in your garden on bare soil which receives a reasonable amount of sunshine for the heat. What can you compost? All your kitchen waste which isn’t dairy or meat can be added – vegetable/fruit scraps, crushed eggshells, coffee grounds, shredded paper and cardboard, grass cuttings and also garden waste such as deadheaded flowers, leaves, woodchip, sawdust – the list is endless. When adding to your compost heap make sure you have an equal amount of green waste (vegetable, fruit, coffee, grass clippings) which provides the nitrogen to brown waste (leaves, cardboard, small twigs) which provides the carbon. Alternating these layers can help the breakdown process with the addition of water and air.

With regular mixing or turning of the compost, the piles will soon break down, and once the material is a dark rich brown/almost black – your compost is read! Depending on the size and what you have added this can take from two months to over two years. Compost can be added to soil to help retain moisture, encourage beneficial bacteria, and reduce methane emissions which will lower the carbon footprint. It’s a win-win for everyone.

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