October, north of the equator

October is the month the garden turns from keeping to planting again. The soil holds its summer warmth for weeks after the air has cooled, which is why everything put in now settles better than the same plant put in next March. Indoors it is the opposite: the light falls away faster in October than in any other month, and the care has to fall with it.

In the garden

Plant garlic. It needs a cold spell to split into cloves properly, so an autumn planting gives far bigger bulbs than a spring one, and a variety chosen for autumn planting will sit out anything the winter does. Plant tulips, hyacinths and any remaining daffodils, and pot up amaryllis bulbs indoors for flowers around Christmas.

Open the planting season for woody things. Trees, shrubs, hedging, roses, fruit bushes and boxwood all go in from now until April, and October is the best of those months because the ground is still warm and the rain has returned. Plant hostas, ferns and jasmine, and divide overgrown perennials while you can still see where they are.

Clear thoughtfully rather than thoroughly. Take away anything diseased, especially rose leaves marked with black spot and apple leaves with scab, because the fungus overwinters on them and comes back up in spring. Leave the seed heads of echinacea, grasses and other perennials standing for the birds and for the way they look in frost.

In the house

The light drops sharply this month, and the watering interval should lengthen with it. A plant that wanted water every seven days in September may want it every twelve by the end of October. Feel the compost rather than following the calendar.

Move everything to the brightest place available and clean the windows, inside and out. Stop misting anything that is not actively growing, because damp still air in a cooling room encourages rot rather than health.

Check for the pests that flourish in a heated house: scale on the stems of ficus and hoya, mealybug in the joints, red spider mite where the air is dry. Dealing with one insect in October is far easier than dealing with a colony in February.

What not to do yet

Do not repot, feed or prune anything that has stopped growing. Do not put the heating on and then leave a plant against a cold pane, which is the fastest way to lose leaves. And do not tidy the garden to bare earth, which helps nothing except your view from the window.