Autumn is the season when your garden starts to wind down once all the frantic growing and flowering activity of the summer is over.
At this time of year as you look around your garden, you will notice the leaves are starting to change colour and begin to drop, berries are looking ripe and seed-heads are appearing in your flower beds. This is a sure sign that it is the end of the growing season and for the gardener, the time to start preparing your garden for winter.
Tasks to do in your garden
As the weather starts to cool, bring in any tender plants and put them under cover before the first frosts start to arrive. This is also a good time to move or plant confers and evergreens as the soil is still warm and will encourage good root establishment.
Now is the time to clear away your summer bedding plants that have gone over and start to plant up your spring bedding and spring bulbs. You can plant with enthusiasm and look forward to a fine early display as a reward for your hard work.
Take a look at your perennials. You will need to remove any dead stems you find but remember to leave any seed-heads intact for your friendly garden birds to eat. Now is a good time to plant shrubs and climbers so they can get established before the winter.
Give your lawn a good mow and don't forget to tidy up and straighten lawn edges too! Lop off any loose overhanging branches from trees or large bushes that have gone a bit wild.
A great tool for tidying up all these loose ends is the Rolson Garden Lopper. This lever action bypass lopper has a non-stick blade and steel handles with a soft grip that makes it comfortable to work with while tidying up your garden.
For your own safety and peace of mind, make sure you batten down the hatches and check that nothing is left out in your garden that can blow around in the autumn winds can cause damage during a windy spell. Pack away patio furniture into the garden shed and make sure your hardy pot plants are moved to a sheltered spot protected from wind exposure.
Autumn leaves, grass and hedge trimmings
Don't forget to give your hedges a good trim and tidy up ready for winter. You can collect all your grass trimmings, hedge clippings and leaves together to compost. Try to clear up fallen leaves before they become a problem. If left neglected for too long fallen leaves can build up and block drains and guttering. They can also be a slipping hazard on patios and driveways – especially after becoming wet and slippery after a shower or rain.
A great tool for clearing up unwanted leaf build-up is the Rolson Telescopic Leaf Rake. A bargain at the moment at only £11.00, it has a sturdy telescopic steel tube handle that extends from 120 cm to 150 cm – so is great for reaching trapped leaves under hedges. Its design means it is easily stored away when not in use.
Make your own free compost
If you don't already have a compost bin or compost heap in your garden, then now is a great time to set one up. A compost heap is a great way to recycle all your fallen leaves, bedding plants, grass clippings and hedge cuttings. You don't need much room either – a perfect spot would be a quiet corner of your garden but make sure it is level and well-drained.
The trick with building a good compost heap is to let your garden worms do all the hard work for you! Luckily for us, nature has given gardeners plenty of little helpers with the humble worm. There is no better creature for this work and they spend their whole lives munching their way through the waste material you collect from your garden.
Make sure you put the right stuff into your compost heap to keep your worms happy! Good things to add to the mix are grass clippings, leaves, hedge and plant prunings, but also compostable waste from your kitchen too, such as tea bags, fruit and vegetable peelings and cores, even empty egg boxes, egg shells and shredded paper.
A lovely and stylish addition to keep in your kitchen is the Kilner Stainless Steel Kitchen Compost Bin. This handy 2.0L compost caddy can store all of your kitchen scraps until you are ready to add them to your compost heap. Never has recycling looked so good!