Harvest maincrop potatoes. Check each tuber for disease or damage and do not store damaged tubers. Store in a cool, dry place. Let the tubers dry off before storing in jute, hessian or paper bags in a dark frost-free place.
Store onions that have been dried in nets or slatted trays in well-ventilated conditions.
Continue harvesting courgettes, tomatoes, french beans and runner beans regularly
Pick lettuce, radish, carrot and beetroot when they reach required size.
Continue to harvest sweet corn.
Leave autumn squashes to ripen on the plant as long as possible. Place fruit on a wooden board or tile to prevent soiling. Fruits are ready when richly coloured and ring hollow when tapped.
Plant out spring cabbage.
Plant overwintering onion sets.
Protect leafy vegetable crops with bird netting.
Spinach, coriander, rocket and parsley can all be sown until the middle of the month.
Sow fast-growing Oriental greens such as pak choi and mizuna.
Sow winter greens such as land cress, corn salad and hardy lettuce cultivars (including ‘Arctic King’ and ‘Valdor’) for spring picking. Sow kale for early spring harvesting and rocket for autumn harvesting.
Sow broad bean varieties such as Aquadulce or Masterpiece Green Longpod in late September for harvesting in late May, early June.
In the polytunnel sow herbs, salad leaves such as pea shoots, beetroot and chard for winter leaves
Cut herbs for drying and use throughout the winter.
Fruit
Continue to harvest apples and pears as they ripen. Store in a cool, well-ventilated place. Any damaged fruit will not store well and should be eaten now or can be cleaned sliced and frozen.
Continue picking autumn raspberries and blackberries.
Pot up strawberry runners to make new plants for next summer or plant out new strawberries.
Cut out the fruited canes of summer raspberries, blackberries, loganberries and tayberries. Leave the new green canes, as these will crop next year.
Summer prune trained fruit trees such as fans, espaliers and cordons.
Prune blackcurrants by taking out some branches near to ground level
Plant fruit trees at the end of the month while the soil is still warm.
Apply grease bands to fruit trees at the end of the month to deter winter moth.
Flowers
Sow hardy annuals such as calendula officianalis in shallow drills for late spring flowering next year.
Plant daffodil bulbs for early spring flowering.
Continue to dead head flowers to encourage further blooms
General
Empty the compost bin by bagging up compost from the bottom of the bin or heap. Store it ready for use next spring and start a new mix.
Deep-dig out perennial weeds such as bindweed. Keep weeding to prevent weeds seeding.
Begin to add well-rotted manure to bare areas.
Clean the polytunnel to reduce overwintering pests.
