Hello, today I'm going to tell you about things that you can plant and sow in October.
I'm Liz Zorab and this is Byther Farm.
You can plant garlic. So this is one that I've saved from what grew this year. So I will take
the bulb apart and I will plant each of these cloves about that much under the ground.
So the garlic will be here and they'll be about that much soil on top.
I like to plant them really deeply, it allows those roots to have taken
really good hold before the little green shoots come up, so there's less chance of
birds pulling at those green shoots and actually pulling them out of the ground.
So garlic can go in now and so can onion sets.
And I'll link to my videos about planting garlic and onions in the information below.
As ground becomes empty as you harvest your crops, there are several things that you can do.
You could sheet mulch it with cardboard or a plastic sheeting, which
will prevent the light getting to it and any of the weed seeds from germinating.
You can cover it in a layer of compost and then over the winter the
worms will take that compost down into the soil to improve it or you could put
on a green manure and that's what I'm going to do with this bed.
There are several green manures that you can grow, I'm going to use a red clover here.
Basically you sow the seed all over the bed and then you wait about 90 days and
then in theory you dig it in, but what I'm actually going to do is just
chop it off. I'm just going to pull it and drop it back onto the ground because
obviously I don't dig here so I'm literally just going to be pulling it up and
leaving it to sit.
What I have got, I've notice growing here, are some peas and
these are one of the things that I was going to be talking to you about today.
You can sow peas for they're really tasty shoots, in trays inside, so either
in your greenhouse or in the polytunnel.
It's also possible for them to grow outside in a mild autumn. These aren't
going to give you peas, you are growing them for the shoots, but we know it's
possible for them to grow because they're actually growing here and
without me trying!
These ones are obviously self sown, we had peas in the
center of this bed, they're growing quite happily now, so I'm going to harvest the
shoots and the tips to go in our salads over the next couple of weeks. And I'm
also going to get the clover in here.
If you sowed lettuces last month either outside or in a tray, now is the time to
do something with them. So if you sowed them outside, then now is the time
to thin them. If like me you sowed them in a tray, now is the time, at this sort of
size where they're three to four inches high, it's good time to planting them out.
So I've planted some in the polytunnel
which will bring them on sooner, I'm also going to plant some outside. It's not too
late to sow winter lettuces and a variety of something like Winter Gem
it's perfect. These are Winter Imperial and the
instructions say sow them August to September, but it's certainly worth
giving them a go in the first couple of weeks or October particularly as at the
moment it's fairly mild. So I've spaced these about twelve to
fifteen inches apart to give them plenty of space to grow. In the spring I put my
lettuce in very close together, this time of year I'm spacing them further apart
so that they can maximize the light that we are getting, daylight hours are shorter
and the light isn't as strong.
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You can still sow cauliflower so a variety like All The Year Round, so you
can sow this now and in two to three weeks you should get your first seed
leaves come up, They are their best actually sown in place, I've sown them in here
because the space that they I'm going to put them into it isn't quite ready for
them yet and I've still got some plants to get out of that bed before I put
these in. So rather than risking pulling them up as I'm harvesting I will put
those in in a couple of weeks time.
You can also sow seeds of herbs like basil and dill and parsley to grow on
your kitchen windowsill over the winter.
You can also plant broad beans now,
choose a variety like Aqua Dulce and they'll sit in the ground over the
autumn and winter and have a head start in the spring giving you a slightly earlier crop.
Now I'm not planting my broad beans right now because in
previous years when I planted them in the autumn the slugs have eaten them in the spring
and I've had to resow in spring. So this year I'll sow them in modules in the
polytunnel, but I know lots and lots of people who
plant them now and in previous is I have planted in the autumn and they've been
absolutely great.
So there you go, seven things that you can sow and plant in October.
You could also not do the lying on the ground shots until the very end
otherwise you're covered in soil for the rest of it!