Time to say goodbye to last of the summer fruit

If you've got any fruit left in your garden, as the weather turns it won't be there much longer.

It's time then for a end of season tidy up but also an oportunity to prepare for next year. Here are just a few tips for October:

Once you've picked your last raspberries, cut back the canes that have produced fruit to ground level, and tie in the best new canes.

Harvest apples, pears and plums.
(Make sure you store apples carefully by wrapping them up individually in newspaper).

Remove tomato leaves to expose unripe fruit.

Cover fig trees with netting and fill with straw to keep the developing figs free from frost – allowing them to grow next year.

Pick hazelnuts and cobnuts when they start to change colour to an orange/brown.

Plant bare-root gooseberry bushes and plant new fruit trees while the soil is still warm.

For more information go to http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/static/garden-ideas