Gardening tasks for Autumn

Now that the hot summer has passed, it’s time to get into your garden and start rejuvenating at after the punishing treatment that it has been given by our hot dry summer.

The first thing to do is ensure that the soil isn’t too dry. As stated in my ‘thirst quenching’ blog, this means that the soil should be able to be moulded into your hand without crumbling away. It should have the consistency of a moist cake. The next thing to do is ensure the soil has enough nutrients to feed the plants. After summer, gardens tend to be depleted of nutrients after using them up for growth over the previous spring and summer. In my business I fertilise my client’s gardens during Autumn to top up the nutrients in the soil, and again in late Winter/Early Spring to get the full benefit of the peak growing season.

Autumn is also the time for some light pruning. Feel free to shape up tree and plants that have put on lots of growth during spring and summer. I personally like to subtlety separate the foliage of adjacent plants to enable them all to shine. It is especially a good time to dead head the spent flowers of many common garden plants such as Lavender, Salvias, Agapanthus, Hydrangeas and Buddleias.

The best part of autumn is all the beautiful colours of the leaves prior to leaf fall! They can sometimes be left as a natural mulch, however, make sure they do not build up too much as they can become a barrier to rain reaching the roots of the plants. The best way to check this is to get your hands dirty and feel the soil under the fallen leaves.

Here’s a checklist of tasks that will keep your garden thriving!

• Keep the water up (especially until we have more consistent rain)

• Weeding

• Prune back perennial plants that have finished flowering, such as salvias, back to new growth

• Lightly prune garden plants that have finished flowering

• Top up mulch if it has broken down

• Rake up and compost deciduous leaves

• Fertilise garden and lawns

• Don’t allow deciduous leaves to build up too thick on lawns or garden beds!