Falling leaves and fading greens: Autumn garden prep tips!

As we (eventually) enter the new season, there’s a fresh list of garden tasks to help prepare your garden for the change! Daniel Scholfield, Director at The Expert Gate Company, has shared his tips on some of the things you should add to your Autumn garden prep list to get you ready for the season ahead.

Here’s Daniel’s tips:

“Autumn is synonymous with brown leaves littering the ground, so it’s only natural that this is where we start. Obviously you’ll want to clear them all away, especially from paving slabs or pathways where they can become a slipping hazard. Simply bunch them together underneath shrubbery or in a dark corner to create a small hedgehog nest. Or, you could scatter them around your plant beds to act as natural fertiliser, or try throwing them all onto your compost heap for some extra material. You can also use them to create leaf mould which can be an amazing soil conditioner, but requires a bit more effort and elbow grease – we’d still recommend it, but look up a few video tutorials first!

Back to the topic of fertiliser – any annual or veggie plants that have seen their last days need to be cleared away before they begin to rot and potentially spread disease to healthy plants nearby, followed by being promptly chucked on the compost pile. When it comes to your herbaceous perennials, trimming them after their flowering period is over will not only improve their appearance and help with their next flowering season, but also provide you with even more compostable material. Leave some of your hardier plants however, as leaving some stems provides homes and food for beneficial garden critters.

Speaking of the plants that are left, when the weather starts to cool down, it’s time to mulch. Mulching whilst it’s still slightly warm and damp traps that precious heat and moisture in the soil before colder temperatures have a chance to grip it. This could lead to freezing dry soil that can not only kill all of your plants that are lying dormant until spring, but also completely ruin the quality of your soil. 

Keep on top of your fruit and veg harvesting, as now is the time when some of our favourites will be back in season! Apples and pears will be ripe for the picking, literally, and veggies like potatoes and carrots will be ready to dig up to make some hearty meals. If you have any bean-based plants, this will unfortunately be the end of the line for them, and whilst you will need to remove the bulk of them to prevent the spread of disease, leave those nitrogen rich roots firmly in the soil to provide nourishment for your other plants!