October is primarily dedicated to planting out the majority of autumn and overwintering crops. Plant them between or alongside summer crops that are nearing their end. Other important tasks include clearing away spent and exhausted summer vegetables, tackling autumn pests and fungal diseases, replenishing empty beds with a rich layer of compost, and preparing the last overwintering sowings of the year for November.
🌱 What can you sow in October?
You can probably still sow some fast-growing vegetables in early October, but our advice is to do so as soon as possible. Consider the following:
- Pak choi, tatsoi, mustard greens, radish, winter leafy greens and peas/chickpeas. How well this works out depends, of course, somewhat on the weather. However, the past autumns went well with relatively mild weather and sufficient light, so we would certainly give these crops another try.
- The most important overwintering crop is broad bean. You can sow these from mid-October to early November and transplant them in November. By overwintering broad beans in the autumn, they are already well-developed in the spring, allowing you to harvest early in the season.
- Additionally, October and November are the period to plant bulbs directly in the ground. Consider, for example, garlic, flower bulbs and onion sets.
🌿 What can you plant out in October?
October is an ideal month to plant out well-developed seedlings. Base your choice on the space you currently have available in your vegetable beds:
- Do you have a climbing frame or wooden support? → Plant now and in November tall peas. They can grow over the trellis and overwinter, so you can harvest in early spring. If space becomes available in the next one to two months, keep it free for broad beans (sow or plant from mid-October to early November).
- Plenty of space → Ideal for larger cabbage crops. Our favorites are purple sprout broccoli, kale and – if you have extra space – cauliflower (which tastes much better than the supermarket variety!). Regular broccoli and pointed or spring cabbage can also be grown, but they take up relatively a lot of space and yield a single harvest, where the taste difference compared to supermarket vegetables is less pronounced.
- Average space → Ideal for fennel, kohlrabi, runner peas (for example Karina), tatsoi, spinach, lettuce, endive and winter vegetables for salads (winter purslane is an absolute favorite!).
- Small space (for autumn and winter harvest) → Fill small open spaces with pak choi, radish, turnip, dill, parsley and bulbs (such as garlic and spring-flowering bulbs). A nice example of companion planting is to to plant garlic under your ripening eggplants and okra, before you clear away these crops in November. The following April, plant your new eggplants and okra directly next to the garlic that has already been established. The new eggplant and okra plants remain small until May, allowing you to harvest the garlic just before the summer crops start growing explosively.
- Small spots (focus on natural pest control in the spring) → A good strategy for small open spaces between flower bulbs (such as tulips and daffodils) is planting overwintering wild onions and mustard leaf (such as mustard frills and Asian lettuce varieties). These crops can help naturally repel aphids when spring arrives!
🛠️ Time for the next chores
- Widely bloomed and exhausted summer vegetables on → Remove finished crops, such as pumpkins, courgettes, beans and exhausted tomato or cucumber plants. By clearing away dying plant material, you create space, improve air circulation, and reduce the chance of fungal spores and pests overwintering in the soil.
- Replenish the soil with compost → Fill empty or newly available beds with a layer of compost of 2–3 cm. Adding organic material nourishes soil life, protects the soil structure against heavy winter rain, and prepares the beds for the first planting in early spring.
- Top your tomatoes → Haven't you done this in September yet? Then cut the growing point of the tomato plants away. As a result, the plant stops growing further and can focus its energy on ripening the remaining large, green fruits before the cold weather begins.
- Prune for good air circulation and to prevent diseases. → Remove old, yellowed, or dying lower leaves from the crops that remain, so that air can circulate properly. Pay close attention. mildew: remove severely affected leaves immediately and prevent the leaves from getting wet.
- Give less water → Now that temperatures are dropping, humidity is rising, and there is more rain, you can adjust the watering considerable(!) reduce. Only water when really necessary and exclusively at the root zone, for example with newly planted crops.