Seeds to sow now:

Indoors or in a greenhouse

Cress

Lettuce

Outside

Alpine poppy

Alyssum

Antwerp hollyhock, Fig-leaved hollyhock, Hollyhock

Aubretia, Rock cress, Aubrieta, Aubrietia

Bristly hollyhock

Cabbage

Common hollyhock

Cress

Hollyhock

Larkspur

Normandy sorrel

Onion

Radish

Outside under cover

Sweet pea

Shows and events:

I have checked the events listed below and have added comments where necessary. Please check the show website before travelling, as some events are very popular and the venues may have put restrictions in place, others might have to be cancelled at the last minute.

All event details have been entered as accurately as possible, but please check with the event organisers before travelling to avoid disappointment.

The UKGardening web site has been running since 1998. The idea behind the site has always been to provide what we think will be interesting and useful information for the novice gardener.

Enjoy the autumn leaf colour with some of these stunning gardens, woodlands and arboretums

Jobs to do in the garden this week.

• To reduce the chance of introducing infection when pruning or deadheading, wipe the blades of secateurs, loppers and snips with a rag soaked with a garden disinfectant, such as Jeyes fluid, which can also be used to wipe down garden tables and chairs.
• Sweet corn should be ripe enough to harvest. Pick when they are a pale creamy colour. However corn on the cob deteriorates quickly, so it should be used as soon as possible after picking.
• Gather seeds of alliums, poppies, aquilegias and salvias. Label and lay out to dry before storing.
• Azaleas, rhododendrons and camellias set their buds now. If they are being grown in pots or containers, make sure they get plenty of water using rainwater at least once a week.
• Plant new strawberry plants, either from purchased new stock or from saved runners.
• After flowering, dead-head gladioli.
• Continue to water and dead-head hanging baskets, pots and planters, but reduce feeding.
• If your tomato plants have been affected by blight, clear the plants and burn them, adding them to the compost heap will not kill the spores.
• Now is a good time to move herbaceous plants (like hosta) as they aren't growing at the moment. Add organic material to the planting hole.
• Plant up hyacinths for an indoor winter flower display. If you want flowers for Christmas buy and plant up prepared bulbs.
• Check the readiness of fruit and vegetables. Apples and pears should be gently lifted with the hand, if the stalk remains on the fruit but parts easily from the tree, it is ready to be picked.
• Wild flowers only need to be cut down once a year. Wait until they have finished flowering and the seed heads have ripened, adjust the lawnmower wheels to their highest setting, remove the grass collection box and run the mower over them, or if you fancy a lot of exercise, try a scythe. Leave the cuttings on the ground for a few days to allow any seed heads to dry and for the seeds to fall. Collect up the remaining stems and put them in the compost heap.
• Lift marrows, pumpkins and squashes off the ground with straw or upturned plastic flower pots, in order to help them ripen in the last of the sun, keep them from sitting on damp soil and reduce slug damage.
• Tidy and cut back perennials.
• Take cuttings of tender perennials and shrubs. Including salvias, penstemon, lavender and rosemary.
• Collect and dispose of wind-fall fruit. Leaving them on the ground encourages pests and can damage your lawn.
• Replant bulbs that were lifted in the spring. Dispose of soft or shrivelled bulbs.
• Reduce the frequency of grass cutting and increase the height of the cut.
• Prune shrubs cutting out dead, diseased, dying or crossing branches.
• Clip hedges, including box, yew, laurel and beech. Note. If your trees or shrubs carry berries, like verbena, holly or firethorn, leave the pruning of these until the spring, so garden birds have a food source over the winter.
• Hydrangea, poppy and nigela have beautiful seed heads, these should be cut and hung upside down in a shed or garage to dry, for use in dried flower arrangements.
• Cover ponds with netting to prevent leaves dropping or blowing into the water. Remove dead leaves from waterlilies and cut back dying marginals.
• Keep picking dahlia flowers, don't dig up the tuber until we get the first frost and the leaves turn black. Then you can lift the tubers and store them over winter.
• Cut down any wild flower patches or rough grass areas using a rotary mower set on its highest setting for the first cut, lowering the blades for subsequent cuts. Remove the clippings and put them on the compost heap, wild flowers typically like poor soil, leaving the clippings will enrich the soil and thus make it harder for the wild flowers to compete with grasses.
• Now is an ideal time to sow grass seed. Dig over the soil, removing all large stones and weeds, rake it level, sow seed lightly and evenly. Keep off the seedlings until they have reached 10cm when it can be mown.
• Harvest pumpkin and squash before the first frost. Leave them to dry in the shed or greenhouse for a couple of days, until the skins toughen up and they sound hollow. Then store somewhere cool and dry.
• Continue to collect and store seeds from plants, for sowing next year. Store any collected seed in paper envelopes or bags, then put them in an air-tight container.
• Prune blackcurrants, cutting stems that have fruited down to strong new shoots. Reduce number of stems in the centre of the bush.
• Take hardwood cuttings of shrubs.
• Apply grease bands to the trunks of apple, pear, cherry and plum trees to stop wingless moths climbing into the trees to lay their eggs. Female codling moths fly, so grease bands are ineffective against them, hang pheromone traps in the trees in the spring to trap the male moths.

• Spring flowering bulbs should be available in your local garden centre. Plan where you are going to plant them before you go and buy accordingly, it's great fun filling up those brown bags with bulbs, but can be expensive.

  Bulbs are lifted by commercial growers in late summer/early autumn. The bulbs are full of moisture and sugars, but the longer they are out of the ground the more they will start to dehydrate and use stored sugars, smaller bulbs are especially vulnerable so get them into pots or in the ground as soon as possible after purchasing.

  If you have a small garden, or are planting bulbs in pots, think about using smaller varieties of bulbs. Miniature daffodils ('Tete-a-tete' or 'Topolino'), dwarf tulips and crocuses.

  Plant bulbs of one variety together for effect. If the soil in your garden is wet and sticky in winter/spring, plant the bulbs in pots and containers, otherwise they'll tend to sit and rot. Plant bulbs 2 to 3 times deeper than their size. If you are growing in large containers, plant the bulbs in layers sometimes called the lasagne method. Put larger bulbs like tulip and daffodil in first, medium sized bulbs next, finishing off with the smallest bulbs or corms.

  Tulip bulbs are planted in the first two weeks of November, which is slightly later than other spring-flowering bulbs.

• Airate, scarify and top dress lawns, to remove moss, dead grass and encourage healthy grass next season. Now is an ideal time to sow or lay a new lawn, while the soil is still warm. Repair worn patches in the lawn with an equal mix of grass seed and compost. Cover with light netting or twigs to keep of animals and remind you where you've sown. When weeding the grass out of my path, I've often transplanted the little clumps to bare patches in the lawn. Top dressing is the application of an autumn feed, which will encourage a strong root growth, whereas a spring lawn feed is high in nitrogen and promoted leaf growth.
• Put cloches over late autumn lettuce seedlings.
• Once herbaceous perennials have finished flowering and die back, remove and clean plant supports.
• Now is an ideal time if you want to move or plant shrubs or trees. The soil is still warm, the air temperature cooler and there's more chance of rain, so plants are less likely dry out and require less watering.
• Apply manure and dig over heavy soil in the autumn. Don't worry about breaking down large lumps of soil as the winter frost should break these down.
• Autumn or late winter are the best times to lay a new lawn, as it's damper and cooler, allowing the turf to bed in without you having to worry too much about regular watering. See here: laying a new lawn for further information.

Recent articles:

• Visit some lovely gardens showing beautiful autumn colour.
• Creating a compost heap
• Planting up winter containers and baskets
• Making leaf mould
• Cleaning patios, paths and decking
• How to lay a new lawn
• Storing plants over winter
• UKGardening YouTube Channel
• Tweets by UKGardening.
• Removing large branches
• Updated photo gallery