Retiring. Languid. Waning. Mindful. The nights are drawing in, less hours of daylight, an evening chill and you’re reaching for a blanket to wrap over you, because the fading light is so nice… you want to stay outside.
Jobs to do in Autumn
- Mulch vegetable beds and herbaceous borders.
- Start sowing hardy annual flowers, such as Nigella, Ammi Majus, Sweet Rocket and Cornflowers. In the vegetable patch, sow spring onions and oriental leaves, which will overwinter and produce an early crop in spring.
- Plant spring flowering bulbs in borders and containers. Narcissus, Alliums and other bulbs can be planted now. Tulip bulbs should be planted in November once the soil temperature has cooled.
- Continue to deadhead Dahlias, to prolong flowering until the first frosts. Repeat-flowering roses can also be deadheaded now, for an October display of flowers.
- Continue to harvest potatoes, squash, courgettes and fennel. Harvest the last beans and cut down the foliage, leaving the roots in the soil to release nitrogen into the soil for next year’s brassica crop.
- Rake leaf litter from lawns and borders, to make homemade leaf mould – a known soil improver.
- Continue to water container plants, to ensure that they do not dry out.
- Plant soft fruit whilst the ground is still warm, to establish a good root system for a strong, healthy crop next year.
- Plant up Autumn/Winter containers, to provide colour throughout the colder months. Evergreen shrubs, Hellebores and Skimmias, Cyclamen and winter flowering Violas make great displays, lasting until early spring.
