The days are getting shorter and there is that autumn chill in the air. Lots of things to do in the food garden in October to keep yourself busy and get warm! Hopefully lots to harvest, much to sow and plant, and important preparations for the coming year.

Here is a list of things to do in the food garden in October:

• Harvest and eat all those lovely crops you have been growing this year!
• Tidy up dying leaves and spent crops and throw them onto the compost heap before they spread infection in the moist air.
• Feed your soil with lots of well-rotted organic matter. In heavy soils, consider digging in grit.
• Feed your compost heap with all appropriate waste materials. Aim for an equal mix of nitrogen-rich green materials and carbon-rich brown materials. Turn every one or two weeks.
• Clear and clean greenhouses ready for early sowing next year.
• Install water butts to collect autumn and winter rain.
• Rake up autumn leaves and keep them in a pile to make your own leaf mould soil conditioner.
• Net ponds before they get full of autumn falling leaves.
• Bring under cover any citrus trees that have been outside.
• Early October is the last chance to prune trees before they go dormant.
• Save seeds for next year.
• Make liquid feeds to add nutrients to your plants and soil. You can use a variety of different materials to make feeds: compost, comfrey, seaweed, grass clippings, nettles.
• Sow outside: broad beans, peas, garlic, onion sets, shallots, kale, perpetual spinach, spinach, chard. Best to start the kale, perpetual spinach, spinach, and chard off in a greenhouse or polytunnel and plant them out when they have developed into small plants.
• Sow under cover: pak choi, mizuna, mibuna, winter purslane, lambs lettuce, land cress, water cress, mustard, rocket, winter lettuce, winter radish. These crops can be grown outside also, but will benefit from protection, especially if it is a harsh winter.
• Sow green manures to be dug in next spring.
• Plant out Spring Cabbages.
• Cut back asparagus and globe artichokes to ground level once foliage turns yellow and mulch with straw.
• Earth-up celeriac.
• Prune blackcurrants. Cut 1/3 of older stems down to ground level and remove any damaged, weak or diseased shoots to encourage strong new growth.
• Mulch blueberry roots with chipped bark, pine needles or leaf mould which are good for acid-loving plants.
• Plant rhubarb and asparagus crowns. Divide established crowns to create new plants.
• Take and pot on cuttings of currant and berry bushes, dig up and pot on raspberry suckers, pot on any rooted strawberry runners for more new free plants.
• Order new fruit and nut trees and currant and berry bushes to plant from the end of the month throughout the dormant winter season.
• Grow your own free sweet chestnut, walnut and hazel trees from nuts.
• Harvest pumpkins, squashes, okra, peppers, chillies, onions, spinach, cauliflower, runner beans, potatoes, cucumber, lettuce, tomatoes, courgettes, Jerusalem artichokes, celeriac.
• Harvest or leave in the ground over winter leeks, swede, turnip, beetroot, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, kale, parsnips, chard, parsley, rocket, perpetual spinach, onions, chicory.
• Harvest apples, pears and quince (these all store well fresh in a well ventilated airy spot with a constant temperature of between 3-7°C).
• Harvest walnuts, hazelnuts and sweet chestnuts and store in a dry, cool spot.
• Harvest rosehips, sloes, haws, and rowans.
• Continue harvesting plums, gages, and damsons.
• Continue harvesting blackberries, loganberries, tayberries, and autumn-fruiting raspberries until the first frosts (once all the fruit is picked, remove one year old canes and leave the new growth).
• Look to storing, drying, freezing, and preserving your harvests to keep you going through the winter.