Kitchen Garden Magazine

Grow your own fruit and veg with the UK's No. 1 Kitchen Garden magazine

Undercover

The month of October may settle peacefully in the garden or it may blow through with the full force of winter at its back. Frost is pretty well a certainty before the month is out and gales can wreak havoc on unsecured structures. Get your house in order – be it of the glass or polythene kind!

Keep growing

Assess your crops under cover. Are there plenty of things growing to last through the months ahead? If not, there’s still time to sow a few fast crops, and better still, ask other gardeners if they have any spare plants from earlier sowings to put you ahead. Don’t leave the greenhouse and polytunnel empty – as summer plants end their days, winter ones should be filling the space.

Hot tip for the month

Over-wintered crops really benefit from a liquid feed in the first months of the New Year, but January isn’t the best month for making your own, now is. Be well prepared by taking a last cut of comfrey in September or October. Pack the leaves in a bin and cover with water. You can add other ingredients, such as nettles, tea leaves, compost or manure, but the most important thing is to seal the bin well so the smell doesn’t escape! Stir the mix from time to time if you remember, but even if you leave the brew unattended it will produce a great liquid feed all ready to go round the spring cabbage and chard in a few months’ time.

Cucumbers and courgettes

These look to be struggling as the year progresses, but in spite of pretty awful-looking foliage they can continue to crop. There won’t be any more for another six months, so if you have the space it is worth keeping them going. Cucumbers will be misshapen and small courgettes grow slowly, but remember that these plants have cropped for months already and have really earned their keep. Cover with fleece for a bit of extra protection on cold nights and you may stretch the growing season. It’s unlikely you will get either cucumbers or courgettes to thrive beyond the end of October, but by then you can lift the plants and consign them to the compost heap.

Carrots

October may seem an odd time to sow carrots, but if you live in the South, or close to sea level, you may get away with it. Use an early variety such as 'Amsterdam Forcing', or 'Early Nantes'. Sow seed thickly in drills in the border, or if you haven’t much room, sow in a large flowerpot. Seed needs a little warmth to germinate, but that should be possible with a bit of October sun. Once seedlings are up they are fairly hardy, although an extra layer of fleece can be of use. Carrot seedlings always need protection from slugs. These beasts can be active under cover even through the winter months.

 

Peas again

Sow mangetout peas at the end of October. I say this every year, but I still get visitors marvelling at my row of mangetout peas dripping pods in April. It isn’t hard to get a great early crop. I stick with the variety ‘Oregon Sugar Pod’ because I know it works and stands through low temperatures without dying back. Some other varieties are less hardy and won’t survive the winter cold.
Start seed in pots or tubs. I use the tubs that fruit comes in and put six or eight seeds per tub. Eight seeds hedges against a slightly less than perfect rate of germination. Cover with bubble polythene and leave on the bench in an unheated polytunnel or greenhouse. It may be two or three weeks before the seedlings poke through.

For much more advice, see this month's issue, available to buy online!

Copyright information

© Mortons Media Group • | Subscribe | Renew | Buy current issue | Kitchen Garden offers shop