Many of your plants will start dying back and loosing there leaves this month, but there are still a few crops to plant and harvest. Collecting these fallen leaves to make leaf mould to get even more use out of your crops.

Vegetable gardening

General

  • “Cure” pumpkins and squashes – this hardens their skins, the harder the skins get the longer you can keep them
  • Break up heavy soil – dig over beds where the soil has become hard and compacted. Pull out any weeds as you go
  • Cover beds with polythene – spreading sheets over the soil keeps off the worst of the rain and suppresses weeds, as well as allowing you to sow earlier next spring. 
  • Cover late crops with cloches – when temperatures drop, especially at night, protect autumn salads and Oriental leaves with cloches or fleece
  • Cut down asparagus and Jerusalem artichokes – chop down to the ground yellowing asparagus foliage and the stems and foliage of Jerusalem artichokes, and compost
  • Dry out beans for storage – if the weather is dry, leave bean pods on the plants to dry. If it’s wet, cut them down and hang them up indoors or somewhere dry and sheltered. When they are completely dried, pod them and store the beans in airtight containers.
  • Earth up Brussels sprouts – keep earthing up the stems of Brussels sprouts, cabbages, and other brassicas to give them support as they become increasingly top-heavy. cut off any yellow leaves.
  • Order new fruit trees and bushes – Next month is a good time for planting many new, bare-rooted trees and bushes, so order plants from nurseries now if you didn’t do so last month.

Harvesting 

  • Aubergine
  • Beetroot 
  • Broccoli
  • Brussel sprouts
  • Cabbage 
  • Carrot 
  • Cauliflower 
  • Celeriac 
  • Chicory
  • French beans
  • Kale
  • Kohlrabi 
  • Leeks 
  • Lettuce
  • Marrow
  • Mustard Leaves
  • Parsnip 
  • Pear
  • Pumpkin
  • Raddish
  • Spinach
  • Swede 
  • Sweet potato
  • Swiss Chard
  • Tomato 
  • Turnip

Sowing & planting

  • Blackcurrants
  • Broad beans
  • Cabbages (spring)
  • Cauliflowers (early summer)
  • Cranberries
  • Garlic
  • Gooseberries
  • Grapevines
  • Nectarines
  • Onion sets
  • Peaches
  • Peas
  • Redcurrants
  • Rhubarb sets
  • Strawberries
  • Whitecurrants