If you’re a Spring or Summer plant in the garden, October is your busiest month. Everyone is rushing around madly, fighting for space and a spot in the sun. What we call weeds join in merrily, despite best efforts of deep down weeding and immediate mulching in the Winter. This makes October a real busy time for gardeners too…not only do you need many hours per day to peer closely at every patch to observe new buds and flowers appearing, but also all that new weeding and amending that needs doing so you can see what you want to see when you do your peering!
I love October, the last of the Spring bulbs are still with us and the aquilegias come out in force, along with the first of the Bearded Irises and all those other lovely cottagey plants like Astilbes, Pulmonerias and Geraniums. Not to mention the wonderful Dianthus…what a genus they are! Wee-ll I’ve really missed the October boat and the garden has rocked on into November…I will endeavour to make 2 posts this month to catch up…
So October is done and dusted, we had Open Days over Labour weekend, and as usual the weather gods smiled on us and we had 2 lovely days of visitors. Sunday was a tad hot, but no-one (except me) was complaining. The big weather news for October, besides some bouts of torrential rain (normal) was 2 days of frost.(definitely not normal for us in October) Much of the more Southern parts of NZ were blanketed in snow (including my sister’s garden on the coast at Banks Peninsular) but we just had about 4 days of Winter type cold and 2 days of light frost. Doesn’t sound like much of a big deal, does it? But the fact is the garden was in full Spring growth and was expecting neither frost nor the Spanish Inquisition (that was for Monty Python fans only) Hence things I have never seen affected by frost before (eg hydrangeas! and many of the “cold hardy” Salvias) not to mention the daisies, alstroemerias and pelargoniums took a major hit and looked positively ugly for a time. It was no big deal, it soon warmed up and the garden has moved on past its burned leaves now, but I was pleased that I hadn’t banished too many plants from the safety of the glasshouse. 
One genus of plants that certainly don’t mind a bit of frosting is the ethereal looking, but incredibly hardy aquilegias. I like to buy seeds of any new types I see for sale in the seed catalogues, and they mix together and produce all sorts and sizes of plant and flower. I regularly cull the plain purple ones, preferably as soon as they start to flower, to stop them crossing with the more desirable types, it’s a real melting pot! I’m very attracted to mass plantings of these “granny bonnets” and they last really well in a vase as well. Their invasiveness and difficultness to dig out are something I’m willing to put up with to see the picture they make in October and early November.
Another “garden event” in October here was the arrival of a “tiny house” past the house and deposited in the paddock behind the nursery. It was no mean feat getting it there and had to be postponed due to major rain events a couple of times. The truck with the hiab on was the biggest truck I have ever seen! and had to inch past the house, involving much tree pruning and some fence removal. The house itself came thru the paddock towed by a large farm tractor, and was lowered into place successfully. It’s a bit of an eyesore for the moment, but with some decks going on and fences and trees planted it should look respectable and will be some alternative accommodation should we need it…
On a final belated note for October I must mention that some of the roses have made quite an impact in October, not least a rose that is relatively new to me, Bourbon Queen. I somehow just never appropriated this one, until a friend gave me a plant of it a couple of years ago. I had dug it up due to crowding and had it in a pot over the Winter, from where it started to delight all from late September. What a beauty, and the fragrance fills the air! Now I just need to find a suitably large space for it to reside in…
