Gardening in October

Lee Senior brings this season’s final tips for growing on board or on land.

IT IS always worth buying some hardy winter bedding plants in October for brightening the key areas of your boat over winter. Any combination of polyanthus, primrose or winter pansies look good in hanging baskets, window boxes or tubs.

During milder temperatures, given watery winter sun there will be periods of flowering. Why not add a few dwarf narcissi or crocus too for extra flower power in spring.

For fragrance and striking indoor colour around Christmas time, October is the month to plant ‘prepared’ or ‘forced’ hyacinths. These bulbs have been specially treated to make them flower 10-12 weeks from planting.

Start them off in the dark for a week or two until roots form. Then move them to a well-lit, frost-free window area. Colours tend to range from pink, blue or white with some variants, depending on the supplier.

The fragrance is powerful and evocative and a real talking point at Christmas. By comparison garden hyacinths are untreated. They are frost tolerant for autumn planting outdoors, for a fine spring display.

The period from now until March is perfect for planting any dwarf barerooted trees or bushes into large containers or directly in the ground. Bare-rooted plants are very costeffective and given a rich compost such as John Innes no 3 they should thrive.

It is possible to get dwarf types of just about everything these days. The compact blueberry variety Top Hat is an example, reaching less than 60cm in height when fully grown in lime-free compost.

Finally, garlic can be planted outdoors until December for overwintering. This plant is a real bruiser, positively welcoming sub-zero temperatures! Shallots too can be planted now. As long as they are in well-drained containers the cold shouldn’t bother them.