Life on Pig Row: October

Andrew Oldham writes about Pig Row, which is three gardens over a quarter of an acre in Scouthead. Visit their website at www.lifeonpigrow.co.uk

AUTUMN IS with us and you’d be easily fooled into thinking you can hang up your trowel and secateurs.

You may have locked your shed for the winter, the lawnmower carefully covered over and the last of the pots scrubbed clean.

You may have your heating on and
your feet in a pair of thick socks before a roasting fire but there is still plenty you can do this month to keep a little greenery in your life.

Most of us think of basil as a summer herb but if you have a warm indoor windowsill you can sow a pot or two of basil, dill, chives and parsley.

You could be harvesting a modest crop of herbs for use in your Sunday dinners all the way through autumn.

Early in the month you can sow wildflower mixes direct onto prepared soil – next spring they will get ahead of the weeds, giving you an easier to maintain flower bed.

You can even sow hollyhocks and aquilegias under glass now and over winter keep them in a cold frame or porch.

There’s food to be grown too – try All Year Round Cauliflower. Under glass sow one seed per module and over winter in a cold frame and plant out next spring.

You may have never tried your hand at garlic but this is an ideal month to get some in the ground. We grew garlic last year and though the cloves weren’t large, the taste was sweet, potent and a million miles away from the dried garlic you buy in the supermarket.

October is often forgotten as a gardening month but there is plenty to do. So get outside, try your hand at winter hardy peas or broad beans. Just enjoy the last of the warm sun before we forget it once more.