What to plant in October (UK)
October is garlic month. It's also your last comfortable window for overwintering onions, the classic time to start sweet peas, and the point where next year's garden really gets decided. The soil is still workable and mild — here's what to get in before the clocks change.
Veg to plant in October
🧄 Garlic — the star of the month
Garlic doesn't just tolerate autumn planting, it requires it: most varieties need 4–6 weeks below 10°C to split into fat, separate cloves. Break a bulb into cloves, plant each one pointy-end-up, 5cm deep and 15cm apart, in your sunniest well-drained spot. 'Solent Wight' and 'Carcassonne Wight' are reliable UK choices. Plant in October, harvest in July, and it needs almost nothing from you in between.
🫛 Broad beans
Sow a hardy variety like 'Aquadulce Claudia' directly into the ground from late October. The plants overwinter small and tough, then race away in spring — cropping up to a month before spring sowings, and usually before the blackfly wakes up.
🧅 Onion sets — last call
If you didn't plant autumn onion sets in September, early October is your last good window. After that, they don't root well enough before the cold to be worth it.
🥬 Winter lettuce under cover
Sow winter-hardy lettuce and salad leaves in a cold frame, greenhouse border, or under a cloche. Growth slows right down in the depths of winter, but you'll be cutting leaves months before any spring sowing.
Flowers to plant in October
- Sweet peas — the traditional October job. Sow in deep pots or root trainers, overwinter somewhere cool and bright (a cold frame is perfect), and you'll have strong, early-flowering plants that shrug off spring cold.
- Daffodils, crocuses & alliums — still fine to plant through October if September got away from you.
- Tulips — buy them now while the good varieties are in stock, but hold off planting until November — colder soil means less tulip fire disease.
- Hardy annuals — early October is the cut-off for direct-sown cornflowers and calendula in milder areas.
Get ready for bare-root season
From next month, nurseries start selling trees, roses, hedging and fruit bushes "bare-root" — dormant, potless, and roughly half the price of container plants. October is the time to choose what you want and order it: the best varieties sell out before November. If you're planning a fruit corner, raspberry canes, currants and gooseberries are the easiest wins.
Know exactly what to plant, every month 🧄
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