What to do with a vegetable patch in October – 4 crucial tasks to enrich your soil, boost crops and keep your garden in check

Autumn signals the beginning of the end of the growing season for many plants, but if you know what to do with a vegetable patch in October, you could squeeze more out of your garden than you’d think.

There are so many jobs to do in a garden in October, and the same applies to a vegetable bed – now is the time to tidy things up, prepare the soil for next year, and even sow a few hardy crops for winter harvests.

I’ve rounded up a few October vegetable patch jobs to pencil in now for a productive autumn garden.

What you'll need

1. Clear spent crops

If your vegetable patch is looking a little sad right now, it’s probably in need of a good tidy-up – and by October, spent crops will need to be removed.

‘Remove crops that have finished producing or are badly diseased,’ says best-selling author and grow-your-own expert Huw Richards, who has partnered with watering and hand tools brand GARDENA. ‘Healthy plants can often be cut back and added to the compost heap.’

Huw recommends a good pair of secateurs to make light work of cutting back spent stems, like the GARDENA PremiumCut Flex Secateurs (available at Amazon). You don’t have to remove the entire plant, though; sometimes, the roots can act a bit like a green manure.

‘You can leave healthy roots in the soil to break down naturally, feeding soil life and adding organic matter,’ adds Huw. ‘There’s no need to leave every bed completely bare.’

Speaking of organic matter…

2. Prepare beds

October also gives us the green light to begin preparing our soil for winter. Nutrients are especially important in vegetable beds (if you want to grow tasty harvests, anyway), and the work you put in now will pay dividends next spring.

‘Cover empty beds with a layer of well-rotted compost or homemade compost,’ advises Huw. ‘I prefer spreading it over the surface rather than digging it in, allowing worms and soil organisms to incorporate it naturally. A mulch also protects the soil from winter weather and helps retain moisture.’

RocketGro Organic Magic Mulch, which you can order from Amazon, is a bestselling peat-free mulch. It enriches the soil with nutrients, suppresses weeds and protects plants in cold weather.

3. Plant new crops

There are a surprising number of things you can plant in October, and vegetables rank high on the list. Huw says hardy crops like broad beans, winter salads, spinach and spring onions can all be sown now, depending on your climate. You’ll just need to select the right varieties.

‘Choose varieties suited to autumn and winter growing for the best results,’ advises Huw. ‘October is an excellent month for planting garlic – why not also try elephant garlic, known for its colossal bulbs!’

If you’ve got room in your vegetable garden, you could even plant soft fruit bushes.

‘It’s a good time to plant soft fruit such as raspberries, gooseberries and currants, and apple, pear and other fruit trees,’ says Claire Bishop, Senior Plant Buyer at Dobbies Garden Centres. ‘Planting while the soil is still relatively warm gives roots time to establish before winter.’

Gooseberry 'Hinnonmaki Green' (you can order potted plants from Thompson & Morgan) is a popular favourite.

4. Protect tender crops

If you want to get the most out of this growing season, you can – and you don’t have to say goodbye to tender crops just yet. You’ll just need to know how to protect plants from frost and stock up on a few cloches, like this Garden Gear Bell Cloche from Thompson & Morgan.

‘Use fleece, cloches, cold frames or an unheated greenhouse to protect less-hardy crops from frost and extend the growing season,’ says Huw. ‘Remember to ventilate covered crops on mild days to prevent excessive humidity. Consider transplanting some winter crops such as kale and chard into polytunnel beds from outside as they will be more productive over winter with the protection.’

You could even invest in a cold frame like this large wooden cold frame from Crocus.

If you're wondering what to do with a vegetable patch in October, these tasks are key to a productive garden this year and next year.