What to Plant in October (UK)

October is the great tidy-up — but it's also the month you plant for next year. A few jobs now, while the soil is still warm, mean garlic, onions and broad beans waiting in the ground when spring arrives. Scan the list, do what fits your plot, and put your feet up.

Use the planting calendar to double-check timings for your area, and see the month-by-month guide for the full year at a glance. New to all this? Start with how to start a vegetable garden.

Sow indoors

Not much needs the warmth of a windowsill now, but you can keep salad going.

• Winter salad leaves — mizuna, land cress and winter lettuce in trays or on a windowsill.
• Hardy herbs like parsley for a kitchen supply through winter.

Sow outdoors

The soil is still warm from summer, so a few hardy crops will get going before the cold sets in. Cover with a cloche if you're in a colder spot.

• Broad beans — autumn-hardy varieties like 'Aquadulce Claudia' for an early crop next June. See sowing broad beans in autumn.
• Field beans or another green manure to cover and feed bare soil over winter.
• Hardy peas and round-seeded varieties in milder, sheltered gardens.

Plant out

This is October's main event. Plant now and you'll be harvesting months ahead of a spring start.

• Garlic — split a bulb into cloves and plant pointy-end up. It needs a cold spell to bulb up well, so October is ideal.
• Autumn onion sets — overwintering types for an earlier crop than spring-planted ones.
• Strawberry runners and new plants while the soil is warm enough to settle the roots.
• Bare-root fruit such as raspberries, gooseberries and rhubarb arrive from late autumn — get planting holes ready now.

Harvest now

The tail end of the main season meets the first of the winter crops. Pick the tender stuff before the first frost catches it.

• Pumpkins and winter squash — cut with a good stalk and cure in the sun so they store.
• Apples — pick when they twist away easily from the branch.
• The last outdoor tomatoes — bring green ones indoors to ripen on a windowsill.
• Leeks, kale and other hardy greens — these only sweeten as it gets colder.
• Beetroot, carrots and maincrop potatoes — lift the last of these before heavy rain spoils them.

Jobs for October

The growing slows, so spend the time setting things up for next year.

• Clear spent crops from empty beds — pull out finished courgettes, beans and squash plants.
• Mulch bare soil with compost or well-rotted manure. The worms pull it down over winter and you skip the digging — the heart of no-dig gardening.
• Rake up fallen leaves and bag them to make free leaf mould — the best soil improver going.
• Empty grow bags and pots of container compost onto beds, and bring tender plants under cover.
• Net brassicas and any standing greens against pigeons, which get hungrier as the weather turns.

Want to look further ahead? See what to plant in November once the beds are cleared, or browse the easiest crops for beginners to plan next year's plot.