Allotment advice and tips - October - Clear days of Indian summer ideal to carry out autumn digging, collect leaves and growth for the compost, or dig it in and bury straight in your trench (The American Way).....

Month by month guide:
Vegetables, Herbs and Fruit.

Vegetables Herbs and Fruit to put on the table this month:
Globe Artichoke
French beans
Beet
Brussel sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Lettuce
Marrow
Onion
Peas
Radish
Spinach beet
Sweetcorn
Tomato
Turnip


Apple
Grape
Peach
Pear
Plum
Strawberry

What to do in the allotment in October? Apart from harvesting the above.

General Tasks
Dig at every opportunity in fine weather.
Get maximum benefit of autumn frosts if any this year.
Collect and stack leaves to decompose
Feed the birds.

Vegetables:
Plant out spring cabbage.
Pick and take indoors last of the tomatoes.
Plant winter and spring lettuce.
Cut remaining marrows and store in dry frost free place.
Clear pea and bean haulm and dig ground.
Lift beetroot and store in clamp covered with straw.

Under Glass:
Sow lettuces for growing under cloches.
Cover spring cabbage and early carrots with cloches.

Herbs:
Take cuttings of bay, lavender and rue.
Divide clumps of chives in mild weather

Fruit:
Apples and Pears
Order fruit trees and bushes for autumn planting.
Prepare planting sites, breaking up subsoil for good drainage.
Work compost into soil while digging.
Control weeds round established trees.
Put grease bands round apple and cherry trees.
Pick and store apples and pears as they mature.
Take gooseberry cuttings.
Pick autumn fruiting strawberries

More suggestions?

Some suggestions that have been sent in.

Composting: All you need to know

Manure: Some suggested uses

Wormeries: How to create a wormery.

If you have any advice on anything to do with allotments please contribute.