October is a busy month in the garden, with tasks including pruning stalwart shrubs, refreshing containers and tidying up beds and bordersLottie Gibbons Executive editor SEO and engagement, Jayne Thomson and Hannah Stephenson
06:18, 11 Oct 2025
Gardener pruning climbing roses(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
The air may be getting chillier and the days shorter, but October is a prime time for planting due to the soil still being warm, even though tidying up might take up most of your time.
You can still reap the rewards of your hard work in the vegetable patch, harvesting leeks, main crop potatoes and carrots, and making sure you’ve ordered cost-effective bare-rooted shrubs, including roses, ready for planting during their dormant periods.
Here are some tasks to keep you busy this month.
Revamp your containers.
It’s time to say goodbye to your summer bedding, which has likely seen better days, and replace it with winter and spring displays of violas, heathers, winter-flowering cyclamen and miniature conifers. The sooner you get this done, the more time the plants will have to settle in, reports the Liverpool Echo.
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Add a few shrubs into the mix, such as small-leaved hebes and Skimmia japonica, and remember to plant some spring-flowering bulbs underneath, like narcissi and grape hyacinth. If your pots are on the smaller side, opt for dwarf varieties of daffodils to maintain balance in the container.
If you’re not planning on having winter containers, give them a thorough clean and store them in a cool, dry, frost-free place until they’re needed again.
Clean up beds and borders.
Weeding might be the last thing you want to do when it’s colder, but it’ll save you a lot of time next year and shouldn’t take too long with a good hoe.
Trim back dead flower stems, but leave some seedheads for the birds to enjoy and consider leaving your borders a bit more wild than in previous years to provide shelter for wildlife.
If you have some unused space, think about planting bare-root woody plants, including roses. These are less expensive than container-grown shrubs and will have time to establish themselves during their winter dormant period.
Now is an ideal time to divide overgrown clumps of perennials such as hostas, helenium and Michaelmas daisies. Lift the whole clump and split it with a spade or even a sharp knife, then replant the divisions, adding plenty of organic matter to the soil, to give them more room to grow.
Prune hardy shrubs.
Resilient shrubs like buddleia and lavatera can be pruned to prevent damage from wind-rock. You can trim them down by about half their height to make them look tidier.
Climbing roses can also be pruned now before being tied in so the autumn winds don’t break the stems.
Rake up leaves.
If you or your neighbours have trees, there are likely to be fallen leaves everywhere, on your lawn and in your borders.
Diseased leaves can cause problems for the plant life they land on. If they cover your grass, they block light getting to the lawn and can create bare patches and disease.
Fallen leaves can also attract slugs and snails, which take shelter under them.
Don’t fret too much about your borders, as earthworms will pull them underground, where they’ll decompose and enrich your soil.
You don’t need to discard the raked leaves. If you have a compost heap, add them there; if not, pack them into large bin liners, puncture holes for ventilation, and stash them in a hidden corner of the garden for about 12 months.
By then, they’ll have transformed into a crumbly black organic matter, perfect for use as a top dressing for plants.
Alternatively, you could build a leaf mould bin using chicken wire secured with four sturdy posts.
Prepare to move delicate plants.
Get ready to relocate half-hardy and tender plants such as pelargoniums, some salvias and fuchsias in October. They should be pruned back to around half their size and moved indoors, either into a frost-free greenhouse or a shed.
If they’re in a border, dig them up, pot them and bring them inside.
Plants that are difficult to move, like bananas or tree ferns, might benefit from being wrapped in horticultural fleece to shield them from the worst of the weather.
The RHS recommends gardeners to preserve the previous seasons’ growth on more tender plants until spring, for instance penstemon, to help provide frost protection in winter.
Some dahlias require lifting after the first frost of winter has blackened them, and storing in a dry place in wooden trays until they’ve dried out, then in peat-free compost. However, many gardeners opt to leave their dahlias in the ground, covering them with a thick mulch in the hope they’ll return – and often, they do.
Continue to harvest crops.
In October, you can enjoy leeks, carrots, main crop potatoes, autumn cauliflowers and many other vegetables, but keep an eye on the weather as some may spoil if we have a particularly wet autumn or an early cold snap.
Your French and runner beans will be nearing the end of their season, but if you cut them all back, leave the roots where they are as they will provide the soil with some nitrogen-fixing fertiliser, which will help enrich your soil.
Leave potatoes out in the sun to dry for a few hours, then ideally store them in hessian or thick paper sacks in a dark storage area to prevent them from sprouting.
Leave carrots and parsnips in the ground until you need them, but if it’s very wet they may start to rot – in that case, dig them up and store them.
If you’ve sown summer crops late, such as lettuce and pak choi, cover them with horticultural fleece to extend their growing period.
Clear spent plants including tomatoes, aubergines and courgettes and add them to the compost heap. Once the vegetable patch is clear, dig it over, adding some compost or well-rotted manure.
As the month draws to a close, it’s time to start planting garlic and autumn onion sets. This period is also ideal for establishing new strawberry beds, harvesting your apples and pears for storage, and giving your blackberries a good prune.
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