Helping New Zealanders grow great gardens since 1912, Palmer’s Garden Centre provides ideas and inspiration on what you can plant in October to ensure that your garden springs to life.
This is one of the most exciting gardening months on the calendar! It is the traditional time to plant tomatoes and vegetables with the temperature rising all garden plants start springing to life.
KITCHEN GARDEN: Plant your favourite seedlings such as tomatoes, beans, peas, carrots, radish, beetroot, and spinach. You can also plant eggplant, lettuce, cucumber, courgettes, capsicum, pumpkin, and cauliflower. These seeds can be sown directly into trays or directly into the ground. Control slugs and snails with snail and slug bait or Quash, which is safe around kids and pets.
FLOWER GARDEN: Sow seeds of your favourite flowering annuals directly into the ground such as sunflowers, alyssum, marigolds, cosmos and nasturtium. Sow into trays for transplanting later; carnations, dahlia, petunia and gerberas. Plant up hanging baskets and terracotta pots with flowers for summer.
Plant perennial and summer flowering bulbs such as dahlia, begonia, gladioli and calla lily. Plant new roses and use Garden X compost and a long-term slow release fertiliser like Tui Enrich Rose fertiliser at planting time.
CONTAINER GARDENING: Increase watering of all plants in containers or pots as the weather warms up. Adding Tui Organic Seaweed Plant Tonic at each watering will give you healthier plants and flowers. Repot houseplants if you haven’t already done so including orchids after flowering.
LAWNS: Sow new areas of lawn now. Tui Lawn Force range of lawn seed has varieties to suit dry or hard-wearing areas, or easy care for those who want to mow lawns less.
Related | In my backyard: A touch of Italy
