October is when we see the nights draw in rapidly and daylight quickly diminishes. So if you have a garden -and more importantly the time!- time to start on the autumn chores, gather up all the garden waste and have a bonfire. Although its not considered especially ecologically sound anymore to have them,  I have to admit to still getting very nostalgic about the tradition, something about the smell of woodsmoke in the autumn drifting through the countryside seems quintessentially 'English' (and quite possibly Irish, Welsh & Scottish too, if you are from those areas!) .

As I mentioned though, local councils do encourage gardeners to reduce waste by composting as much of the refuse as possible especially plants waste. You can buy compost bins from your local Community Recycling Centre if you wish to keep it a little tidier. (look at your local council website or phone up to see what is available; some will even deliver them to you free of charge)

If you decide to go ahead

By October it's time to start tidying up the garden in preparation for the long relatively sunless and perhaps wet winter period ahead. Jobs can be divided into those that tidy up the garden after summer, those that allow it to hibernate over the winter period and jobs which prepare it for the coming spring and summer.

For autumn:

You'll need to split and divide herbaceous plants whilst weeding and mulching the border. Remember to remove diseased plants (or parts of plants) so they cannot propagate any further or spread the infection to other healthy plants. Winter is a prime time for this to occur. You'll need to check bushes and trees for stability, especially those that have grown a lot during the last summer and prop them up or re-stake

As well as our professional range of products on our Weather Shop website, you may find that our EnviroMonitors website best suits your requirements.

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Last month we talked about some of the ways to get forecast weather information of specific use to the marine community. As I mentioned then though, if you know your met well enough then you'll be able to supplement the forecast with information on the hoof, interpreting changes to the weather as you go along.

What then are some of the signs that can warn you in advance of the imminent development of stormy weather, that for smaller craft and crew can cause the most problems?

Generally, sea and swell will take their time to rise and you can usually be aware of these changes enough in advance to head for port. However the most rapid changes usually occur when atmospheric conditions cause sudden squalls and thunderstorms. These are often linked to frontal passages and again, a quick check on the forecast weather chart will usually show if you are likely to encounter them on your journey. A cold front in particular will often give squalls and heavy

The main problems associated with damp gardens in the summer often hinge on the flora being too close, so you need to ensure that areas of denser foilage are well ventilated. In the summer garden you do need to catch disease as soon as you spot it, as it can take hold surprisingly rapidly in a relatively warm damp environment.

Particular diseases to look out for, in warm damp summer weather, include rose blackspot (small dark spots appear on the leaves which may turn yellow and fall off as spores are carried in water splashes); firelight, unusual but it attacks pear trees, hawthorne and cotoneaster and apples and pyracantha. Branches wilt and the leaves turn a burnt chestnut colour, spreading down the main trunk until the whole tree looks burnt. It is mainly carried by pollinating  insects and by raindrops between June and September.

Downy mildew is a late spring/early summer fungal disease that appears as an off white rather 'fluffy' growth underneath

The so called 'Christmas Blizzard' of 1927 was one of the worst blizzards of the 20th century to hit the southern UK.On Christmas Eve, there was a cold ENE'ly flow across the UK bringing with it snow showers to the east coast and night frosts.

By Christmas Day, a low pressure had moved into the English Channel of around 987mb and this then engaged the colder air to the north and east. Initially, the precipitation that fell was rain but as the low pulled down even colder air from above, the rain turned readily to snow and by midnight, many southern and southeastern counties had a snow cover. Conditions the next day were very bad with heavy snowfalls and a gale force northeasterly wind bringing blizzard conditions and severe drifting. Villages were cut off by drifts up to 6-7 metres (20 feet) and food supplies had to be air-dropped. Transport was virtually paralysed with train services seriously delayed or cancelled. Even in central London, depths of snow

One way to observe the South Downs Way is to walk along part, or if you're feeling brave, all of it. In good summer weather with plenty of long hours of light, this is an excellent way to completely immerse yourself in another way of life for a week. Forget the jet set, I'm talking about the sturdy boots set here!

The walk covers 100 miles in all from Winchesrer to Eastbourne with about 4150 m (13600 feet) of hills to climb and ascend whichever way you travel. It takes about 8 days to walk it (3 to cycle it) and you will climb as high as Butser Hill in Hampshire to 270m (900ft) and also Ditchling Beacon (East Sussex) at 248m (814ft).

You will mainly be walking on well maintained wide grassy or flinty tracks across the chalk downland, grazed by sheep on the hills with arable crops below; whilst the western part of the Downs tends to be composed of rolling farmland, the mid section of the West Sussex Downs are dominated by steep, sometimes wooded escarpments with good views

Although we see a lot of sunshine in April, it's in May that the strength of the sun really becomes apparent if you stay out in it for any length of time.

The sun is at its strongest at the time of the summer solstice, around June 21st but by early May it is as strong as in mid August and quite capable of causing sunburn, if you don't take the right precautions.

The average sunshine amount during May across England and Wales is about 200 hours, equating to around 7 hours per day but the sunniest Mays' can see more like nine or ten hours on average each day. As the far north sees increasingly long days, in the right conditions parts of Scotland can see a lot of warm sunshine; for example in May 1975 there were 329 hours recorded on the island of Tiree in the Outer Hebrides, Scotlands sunniest month ever.

Whilst we record the total hours of sunshine it is the strength of the sun that actually causes most problems, combined with how long you