Your Garden In October

Autumn colour

This is the month when autumn really shows its true colours – dew on the grass and a distinct nip in the air, but also the most breath taking display of colour. This time not from flowers, but from the many plants whose leaves take on awesome autumn colour. With shades of rich red, orange, gold, brightest yellow and lost more besides, autumn foliage is something you should try to squeeze into your garden.

October is a great month for planting, with summer’s warmth still in the soil magically combined with heavier rainfall, make sure you choose some autumn colour plants now. It is a great time to buy them as you can choose them whilst they’re decked in colour, and so get a glimpse of what’ll be in your garden for years to come. A visit to your local garden centre or nursery will be bound to help you to discover just what would suit your garden best, so work out how much space you
have and get choosing. If you can also jot down the aspect, how much sun the spot gets and what the soil is like, this will help you to make sure you get the right plant for each place.

Some of my favourites include Amelanchier, the climber Vitis coignetiae, Cotinus, Euonoymus alatus ‘Compactus’, Cercidiphyllum and the many maples, especially the Japanese maples. But don’t forget that there are also a lot of much smaller plants which can really add to your garden’s impact at this time of year too, so you can squeeze them into smaller spaces or smaller gardens, some even into good-sizes pots and planters - take a look at the autumn foliage of Heuchera and Tiarella or Ceratostigma and you’ll see what I mean.

Then there are also plenty of smaller plants which make a great show by bringing some late season flower power to beds and borders – the nerines, ice plants, heleniums and chrysanthemums to name but a few. With some of these plants to hand it won’t take long to transform your outdoor space from an end-of-season look to a drop dead gorgeous display of all that autumn has to offer, so go on, get planting!

Content By:

Pippa Greenwood