GARDENING - your jobs for October

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October is one of the most colourful times of the year. Many flowers are still blooming and the leaves on trees and shrubs are beginning to change to fiery colours like red, yellow and orange.

It’s a good time to plant trees, shrubs and perennials as the soil still has some warmth and will help to get them established.

Try to get evergreens planted by the end of the month. Evergreen shrubs provide structure and form to the garden throughout the year, but many produce early displays of flowers followed by autumn berries.

Berry-bearing trees and shrubs come into their own this month, creating colourful displays that can last well into winter. From elder berries to rose hips, crab apples to firethorns, the addition of berrying plants adds a new dimension to any garden.

Berrying plants also provide home grown food for hungry birds and wildlife too.

Trained against walls and fences, Firethorn is a valuable evergreen shrub, its thorny stems make it a great choice for producing secure garden boundaries.

Don’t let the spines put you off buying Pyracantha though – they provide valuable nesting sites for birds and their flowers attract bees. Explore the Cotoneaster family too, attractive ornamental shrubs with year-round appeal that make an excellent choice to carpet banks and low borders or train up to cover bare fences. Birds love these berries, quickly stripping stems bare as they stock-up for winter.

For a lot of gardeners October is a tidy-up month, getting plants and containers ready for winter but there are other jobs that need doing as well, as gardening experts will tell you...

September is generally a cooler, gustier month than August and the days are noticeably shorter. While there’s not as much to do in the ornamental garden at this time of the year, if you have a fruit or vegetable patch, you’ll be busy reaping the rewards of harvest.

It’s also time to get out and start planting spring-flowering bulbs for next year and you can collect seeds for next summer’s colour too. Make the most of the remaining warmth while you can!