Be yourself; everyone else is already taken - Oscar Wilde
October 2025 was dull, dull, dull. The month started OK, with some above average warmth and glimpses of the sun, but turned colder and gloomier as the month progressed. October is a bit early for the onset of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), also known as winter depression.
This month's garden photo (Photo 1) was taken on the 22nd October - a typical overcast day. The leaves are a mixture of verdant green and autumn hue. There is still plenty of colour in the garden if you look for it (e.g. fuchsia, cosmos, salvias). No prizes but can you spot the forever present wood pigeon visitor?
Daily garden photos from a rear window are collated in Video 1.
Video 1: Daily Photo of the Rear Garden (October 2025)
Selected weather statistics for our Hereford back garden during October 2025 are summarised in Table 1. This month's values look remarkably similar to last month's stats. Thankfully such conformity is rare in the British climate - I'm not sure I could cope with all seasons being the same. From a gardening point of view, the absence of any autumn frosts gives rise to an extended growing and flowering season.
Table 1: Summary Weather Statistics for October 2025
The first week and half was pleasantly warm with the odd sunny day. After that the temperatures continued to steadily drop and it felt noticeably cooler (though not cold) largely due to a lack of sunshine; Figures 1 & 2. Storm Amy brought wind (Table 1) and rain (Figure 2) on the 4th October though its more severe effects were felt much further north than Hereford.
Figures 3 & 4 show weather trends in Hereford for the month of October covering the last 6 years. Temperatures (monthly mean & maximum daily) may be on the rise though with a lot of variability (Figure 3).
Figure 3: October Temperature Data for Hereford (2020- 2025)
Over this six year period, rainfall appears to be decreasing albeit somewhat chaotically (Figure 4) but this does not lead to sunny weather as sunshine hours show no clear trend (Figure 4).
Figure 4: October Wind, Sun and Rain Data for Hereford (2020 - 2025)
The next three figures (Figures 5,6,7) are taken from the Met Office's monthly report for October 2025. Figure 5 shows that temperatures were a little above average for most of the UK including Herefordshire. Figure 1 provides more granular data for Hereford showing the month started off well above the long-term average, dropped to average over the middle part of the month before decreasing to below average for the latter part. The nearby weather station at Credenhill reports an average monthly temperature of 10.75 ℃ for October, 1.25 ℃ below the monthly mean value recorded by my garden weather station (Table 1). This extra warmth falls within the range indicated by Figure 5 albeit at the top of that range (urban heat island effect).
Figure 5: UK Mean Temperature Anomalies (October 2025)
Rainfall for the UK as a whole was near the longtime average (1991-2020), possibly a little below average for Herefordshire (Figure 6). According to the Credenhill weather station, located about 4-5 miles away, a typical October sees 77.1 mm of rain. Hence the 47.4 mm (61% of the typical) recorded in our garden indicates that Hereford resides in the light brown patch in Figure 6.
Figure 6: UK Rainfall (relative) for October 2025
Finally, we can see from Figure 7 that sunshine levels were (literally) dismally low largely due to high pressure conditions settling over the country under persistent grey clouds - what the Met Office call an 'anticyclonic gloom'. Figure 7 indicates that sunshine levels in Herefordshire were only 50-70% of what we might normally expect. From Figure 4, it seems we haven't had a really sunny October for a few years.
Figure 7: Sunshine Hours (relative) for October 2025
Jobs in the Garden
Harvesting Bell Peppers, Aubergines, Tomatoes, Spinach, Potatoes, Celery, Beetroot, Turnip & Marrows, Apples
Sow green manure (field beans and rye grass)
Eating stored onions, garlic, pears plus veg & fruit from the freezer.
Composting and mulching/feeding fruit trees with homemade compost
Hedge cutting - our 10 metre long hedge (blackthorn, wild rose, bramble, hawthorn, hazel) had grown out of control and needed cutting back with the help of our next door neighbour (see Photo 2)
Photo 2: Hedge after Cutting Back (2nd October 2025)
Flora & Fauna in the Garden
Blackbird (x2)
Blue Tit (x4)
Photo 3: Blue Tit Exiting Bird Feeder
Dunnock (x1)
Great Tit (x1)
House Sparrow (x10)
Jackdaw (x1)
Long-tailed Tit (x3)
Magpie (x1)
Robin (x2)
Starling (x15)
Wood Pigeon (x3)
And, finally, a few garden photos starting with the bog garden where the sundew has recovered from its flowering and has even put up another flowering stem ...
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