This month sow some of the sweetpeas I suggested you bought last month in pots made of the inside of toilet rolls, lined with a bit of newspaper to stop the compost falling out the bottom. Soak seeds overnight and plant two per roll, using seed compost that you can buy at garden centres. Water in and leave to germinate inside at 18-22°C. Once germinated, pinch out the smaller plants and move them outside to a sunny cold frame. They will be ready to plant into their position in the spring.

Enough fruit to fill the freezer all year round
Fruit trees are really becoming popular, as they take little looking after (unlike vegetables) and can provide enough fruit to fill the freezer to use all year round. October is a good time to prepare the ground for new fruit trees and bushes. If planting on heavy soil, add plenty of grit to ensure drainage is adequate. Work in plenty of well-rotted manure into each planting position and add a handful of slow release fertiliser when you plant the new trees.

Get on with tidying up
October is also a good time to get on with the tidying up process in the borders. The soil will still be warm and moist, ideal for planting. Continue lifting and dividing clumps of perennials that have grown too big. Swap amongst your friends to increase your diversity of plants – everyone loves something for nothing! One word of warning – it may be prudent to take all the soil from the roots of a plant from a friend’s garden, and washing them off will ensure you get rid of any perennial weeds like bindweed, so do be careful.

Dainty wired stems with lovely pink flowers
Sow ‘Aquadulce Claudia’ broad beans now for an early crop next year. Plant seeds 20cm apart and 5cm deep. This variety comes to no harm even in a very hard winter and will romp away in the spring.

Why not plant some Cyclamen hederifolium, which should be in flower now. Plant somewhere with shelter from the sun and wind, digging in some leaf-mould if you have some – under the shelter of trees is ideal. By planting now, when they are living plants you can see what you are buying and they will establish quickly. The dainty wired stems with lovely pink flowers really brighten up a shady spot, and the leaves form a silver and green carpet later on.