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October: Month By Month In Our Scottish Gardens
The Food Forest, The Raised Bed Garden & The Kitchen Courtyard
October
October – The Turning Month
October marks the turning of the year, when the Scottish garden begins its graceful retreat. The vibrancy of September’s harvest softens into the mellow hues of Autumn. Leaves flame gold and russet before drifting down to rest on damp soil, forming a natural mulch for the months ahead.
The air is sharper now, carrying the scent of apples and fading vegetation. It’s a time for gathering the last of the crops and for clearing and covering the beds in readiness for rest.
The food forest quiets, yet life continues beneath the surface: worms draw fallen leaves down, fungi thread through the soil and the garden shifts its energy inward.
October invites us to slow with it, to tidy, to reflect and to take quiet satisfaction in the year’s work before Winter settles in.
Our October Garden
Each gust of wind brings another drift of leaves across the paths, roads and driveways, a reminder that the season is changing. Collecting leaves is more than tidying, it’s the first step in returning nutrients to the soil. Instead of burning or binning them, we gather them and use them to nourish the garden through the colder months ahead.
A layer of leaves spread over beds and borders acts as a natural mulch, insulating the soil from frost, protecting roots and offering shelter to countless small creatures. Over time, the leaves soften, darken and begin to break down, enriching the soil beneath.
We collect the leaves in these 1/2 tonne white bags and move them into the food forest and raised beds. Unlike compost, leaf mould making is slow and gentle, adding structure and moisture retaining power rather than nutrients. It’s a quiet, patient alchemy that mirrors the garden’s own rhythm of decay and renewal and rather than black bagging the leaves up, we let them work naturally in our food forest and raised beds over the Winter months.
By collecting and reusing what the trees give back, we complete the cycle turning the fading colours of Autumn into the promise of fertile soil and future growth. Check out our blogs Mulch in Gardening: What It Is, Why It’s Used and How to Choose the Right Type and Building Resilient Soil: Composting and Mulching
The Food Forest
By October, the food forest shifts into a quieter, more reflective rhythm. The canopy trees, now mature and confident, stand as anchors in the cooling air, their branches nearly bare with leaves.
The apple harvest has mostly been gathered, but still some holding fast onto the branches. The large, old apple tree that was here when we arrived continues to give generously, a steadfast presence at the heart of the garden. The pear and plum trees, though still shy of fruit, have offered good blossom this year and the young cherries, while sparing in their ripening, hint at promise for seasons to come.
Beneath the trees, the guild planting remains busy. Comfrey has flowered again, clover and ground hugging strawberries knit together a living mulch, protecting and nourishing the soil as temperatures fall. A few late flowers still open for the bees, while fallen leaves gather softly across the paths and beds. The food forest feels complete now self sustaining, abundant and preparing itself, as we are, for rest.
The Raised Bed Area
By October, the raised beds begin to show the shift from high Summer productivity to Autumn preparation. The last of the crops are gathered in and the soil starts to rest after months of constant giving. These beds continue to be a blessing in our sometimes unpredictable Scottish weather, offering both structure and good drainage, even when the rain settles in for days.
Their height makes tending easier for Clayton, allowing us to keep working comfortably even as the temperatures drop. The remaining foliage, stalks of sweetcorn, fading tomato vines, and the tall Jerusalem artichokes stand as reminders of the season’s abundance.
We don’t plant during the Winter months but pack up these raised beds and start prepping the soil for next Spring. See how we pack up our beds in this blog Creative & Sustainable Ways to Reuse Packing Paper and Cardboard
The Pathed Raised Beds
A few fruits and flowers still linger, offering small, sweet rewards before the year closes. The Autumn raspberries continue to produce their juicy fruit although much less than last month. The blueberry bushes are nearly done for the season, their leaves turning vivid shades of red and burgundy, one final show before they fall.
Along the trellis, the last of the sweet peas still cling to their vines, their fragrance faint now, while their pods start to dry out and rattle in the wind.
Salvia × jamensis ‘Hot Lips’ are still going strong and Cosmos standing tall still with vibrant flowers with so many with unopened flowers on them.
The Kitchen Courtyard
Closer to the house, just outside the kitchen door, the kitchen courtyard begins to quieten, though it still hums with gentle productivity, this small space remains our most convenient source of freshness as the rest of the garden slows.
The focus now is on gathering and preserving, drying herbs, chopping and freezing what’s left, and saving seeds like coriander for next year.
The salad greens grow more slowly now, rocket, mustard, spinach, rosemary start to get grown in pots on the windowsills indoors. Even as the air cools and the courtyard shifts into rest, there’s still life, scent and flavour to be found small reminders that the garden continues to give, even as it prepares to sleep.
The last of all the seeds we’ve grown in this area this year start to get moved to the main garden, the yarrow, chives and lupins into their final spot, ready to over winter to grow fully next year.
Green Manure Starts To Be Planted Video Reel
Lavender Hedge Trimmed For Winter Video Reel
The Season’s Mood
October carries a quieter, more introspective mood in the Scottish garden. The light is lower and softer now, mornings edged with mist and the scent of damp earth. Each day feels shorter, the air cooler, the colours deeper, burnished golds and russets replacing the bright greens of Summer.
Work in the garden slows to a gentler rhythm: clearing beds, spreading mulch, collecting leaves and gathering the last lingering fruits. There’s less urgency now, more reflection, as we begin to accept the garden’s natural pause. The energy that once pushed upwards and outwards turns inward, both in the soil and in ourselves.
October reminds us that rest is part of the cycle, that letting go is as necessary as growing, and that even in stillness, the garden continues its quiet work of renewal beneath the surface.
Happy Gardening!
Katrina & Clayton and family live in East Ayrshire and share their daily life in the garden on instagram. They practice permaculture principles in the garden, reducing & repurposing waste whenever they can. Katrina shows how home educating in nature has helped Clayton thrive.
Clayton Completed The 2 Grow and Learn Courses with the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society. He is Autistic, Non Verbal & has been Home Educated since 2018. Katrina & Peter hold their PDC & PDC PRO Permaculture Design Course from Oregon State University.
They featured on BBC Beechgrove Gardens Ep23 2022 and returned in 2023 for an update, Katrina & Clayton are also columnists for ScotlandGrows Magazine, Guest Blog for Caledonian Horticulture as well as working with Gardeners’ World Magazine and many other brands.
They are also Author of the new Children’s Book Series: Clayton’s Garden Journey: Stories of Autism and Gardening. Topics on Growing, Harvesting, Sowing & Composting and 108 Page Weather and Seasons Weekly Gardening Record Book available on Amazon and Kindle.
Listen in on their Guest Podcasts to learn more about them.
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