The clocks may not have gone back yet, but the garden is already counting down the hours until winter.
As autumn arrives, the leaves are turning, the soil is cooling, and growth is beginning to slow.
It’s the season that sets up everything that follows, and getting a few key jobs done now can make life a lot easier in the spring.
Start by clearing away anything that’s finished for the year – spent annuals, tired veg plants, and diseased foliage. Leave seed heads standing where you can: they’re good winter forage for birds and add some good winter structure to the garden.
Tidy up beds and borders, remove weeds, and cut back anything that needs it. Long rose stems can be shortened to stop them rocking in winter winds.
Lawn care
Our lawns took a hammering over our long, hot summer, and September and October are ideal months to help them recover. Scarify to remove thatch, aerate where the ground has become compacted, and overseed any bare patches. A light autumn feed will help strengthen the roots before winter.
Mulch now
If there’s one job worth prioritising this autumn, it’s mulching. Applied while the soil is still holding some warmth, mulch can help suppress weeds, protect roots during cold weather, and improve soil ready for next year.
If you’re digging it in, incorporate it to around a spade’s depth at roughly 20% mulch to 80% soil and leave to settle for a few days. If you prefer a no-dig approach, lay a 2- 3 inch layer over the soil surface and let the worms do the work over winter.
Our mulch is peat-free and waste-free, and approved for organic use by the Soil Association. It starts with crops grown on the farm, which feed into our renewable energy process before the resulting organic material comes back out as a sustainable mulch. It’s as circular as gardening products get!
Think ahead
Once the beds are cleared and mulched, it’s time to start thinking about what comes next. Bare-root planting starts in November, so now is the moment to plan any new roses, trees, shrubs or hedging while the ground is still workable. Autumn is bulb planting season, too. A little effort now can make a big difference when the garden starts waking up in spring.
Find out more
If you’d like guidance on using our mulch in your garden this autumn, there’s more detail on our website, or give our friendly team a call, and they can talk through what works best for your beds.