collaborative post | Autumn garden jobs matter more once the clocks go back, because the hour of usable daylight after work or school simply disappears overnight. Whatever didn’t get done in the lighter evenings has to be squeezed into weekend mornings instead, or left until spring when overgrown hedges and soggy borders are a bigger job than they needed to be. Getting ahead of the change while there’s still light to work by makes the whole garden easier to manage over winter.
Photo by Yoksel 🌿 Zok on Unsplash
Some of what needs doing only takes an afternoon with basic tools, while other jobs are better handed to someone with the right equipment, particularly anything involving height or a hedge that’s got seriously out of hand. Working through the garden in that order, from the quick wins to the bigger jobs, makes the most of whatever daylight is left before the change.
Jobs That Need Equipment or a Head for Heights
For hedges that have got away over summer, or shrubs that need cutting back hard rather than just tidied, it’s worth calling in an expert landscaping services for work that’s beyond what most people can manage safely with a pair of secateurs and a stepladder. Autumn happens to be the right time for this kind of cutting anyway, since it falls outside the main bird nesting season, usually February to early August, and a proper cut back now means less regrowth to deal with before spring.
Jobs You Can Get Through in an Afternoon
Surprisingly little of the autumn tidying list needs specialist tools, which makes it easy to fit into a Saturday morning before the light goes. Working through a short list steadily, rather than trying to do everything in one exhausting weekend, keeps the garden looking cared for right through to the first frosts:
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Lift and store any tender bulbs like dahlias before the first hard frost
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Clear fallen leaves off the lawn so they don’t smother the grass underneath
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Give borders a last weed before growth slows down for winter
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Move pots onto feet or bricks to stop them waterlogging on bare soil
Getting Beds and Borders Ready for Winter
Perennials that have finished flowering can be cut back to a few inches above the ground, though it’s worth leaving anything with decorative seed heads, like sedums or ornamental grasses, since birds will pick through them over winter. Adding a layer of compost or well-rotted manure over bare soil now gives worms all winter to work it in, rather than trying to dig it in by hand come spring. Borders that get this done in autumn need noticeably less work when the growing season starts again.
Protecting Containers and Anything Still Tender
Pots left directly on paving can waterlog and crack once the ground properly freezes, so raising them onto pot feet or even a few bricks makes a real difference over winter. Anything that isn’t hardy, from tender herbs to half-hardy perennials still in pots, is worth moving somewhere sheltered like a porch or an unheated greenhouse before the first proper frost arrives. Leaves raked up along the way shouldn’t go straight in the green bin either, since left to rot down in a spare corner they turn into leaf mould, a free soil improver that’s better than anything bought in a bag.