Preparing for the big freeze

Autumn is an important time in the gardening calendar; not only does it herald the arrival of a new gardening year, it’s also time to take stock and plan the coming months’ horticultural activity.

Get your garden ready for winter
Tidy up time
When leaves start falling thick and fast, pick them up and compost them for lovely nutrient rich soil food. Similarly, any annuals that wowed over the summer months will be looking tired now. Dig them up and throw them away, preferably on your composter.

Love your lawn
Before the frosts set in, it’s a good idea to give your lawn a thorough raking, to aerate it. Follow up with an application of lawn fertiliser. If it’s a mild winter you can continue to mow the lawn, though remember to raise the height of the blades.

Feed the soil
Add as much organic compost as possible to give your soil the best head start for the coming months. You don’t need to dig deep and turn the soil over for winter; the more you dig the more damage you will cause, so let nature do its bit by simply absorbing the nutrients.

Make your wish list
One of the best bits about the whole wintry shebang is browsing seed catalogues, deciding on your new season scheme and ordering your seeds. If you have a greenhouse or propagator you can start planting as early as January.

Bring inside
Tender plants such as dahlias can be lifted, brought inside and potted up for a warm winter indoors. Make sure they’re clean and pest-free before they come over the threshold, and keep them well watered.

Look after wildlife
Put up bird feeders and our feathered friends will thank you for their food and drink by doing away with over-wintering pests. Feed them with nuts, over-ripe apples and raisins or, if you’re shopping for bird food, choose high-energy fat balls. If we have a sudden cold snap check the water hasn’t frozen over and put out some fresh food. Read up on encouraging wildlife into your garden.

Prune
Perennials need to be cut back hard, so too do apple and pear trees, buddleia and summer-flowering clematis. For more advice on what to prune and when see our guide to pruning plants.

Protect
If yours is a sheltered city garden, you may not need to protect tender plants – but if your garden is exposed to harsh climes it’s a good idea to invest in some bark compost or mulch to protect herbaceous perennials. If you’re in a particularly windswept area, you can hold the mulch in place with fleece.

It isn’t just plant life that needs protecting over winter. Wooden benches, pergolas and trellising will thank you for a protective preservative treatment.

Repair
Now that your herbaceous borders are empty, it’s the perfect time to make any structural repairs to fences, walls, plastering and woodwork. Choose a dry and not too cold weekend for any cementing though. Check out our section on garden maintenance.

Introduce some winter colour
It needn’t all be bleak and bland over the winter months. Cyclamens, pansies, violas, winter jasmine and witch hazel are our winter troopers adding some much needed colour and variety to the landscape.

Sowing in the autumn

Late sowing

In September the ground is still warm enough for seeds to germinate quickly and with longer summers in some areas, the growing season often continues for a few bonus weeks. So it’s a good time to try some late sowings. There’s a good range of crops that can be sown right through to the end of the month and some even later.

Top
Crops to try

Leafy vegetables

Decreasing light levels mean late sown vegetables won’t flower and fruit, but leafy crops can put on plenty of growth in the time remaining.

Leaf varieties to sow outdoors include: pak choi (tatsoi) varieties, mizuna, winter cress, spicy oriental salad mixes and spinach varieties such as ‘Giant Winter’. These should germinate quickly and give you plenty of supply for stir fries, soups and leafy salads through to the first frosts.

If you have a greenhouse or cold frame you can sow winter lettuce varieties under glass. ‘Winter Density’ is one of the most popular and produces lovely tender hearts of lettuce through the cold months.

Broad beans and peas

Early sowings of broad beans and peas can be carried out from late September through to mid November. The advantage of sowing early is that plants can establish over the winter and flower and fruit earlier. Many plants are able to withstand quite harsh conditions; however you may need to fleece young plants during hard frosts or snowy conditions. ‘Super Aguadulce’ and ‘Aguadulce Claudia’ are two broad bean varieties that suit early sowings. ‘Feltham First’ is the most popular pea for early sowings.

Garlic

Garlic can be planted from the autumn right through into February, providing the ground is not too hard or waterlogged.

Christmas potatoes

If you plant seed potatoes in September in a pot, you can grow a crop to serve with your festive turkey. The plants need to establish before the first frosts when they should be brought indoors to a sheltered spot. Keep watering and earthing up until December and dig up your crop of new potatoes on Christmas Eve.

Home made Self watering systems

Weeds in the lawn

Weeds in the lawn.

Weeds in the lawn

Weeds in the lawn

Many shallow rooted, rosette forming lawn weeds can be removed with a daisy grubber, while tap-rooted weeds can be hoicked out of turf with a long-handled weed tool.
Alternatively, weeds can also be treated with a herbicide gel brushed onto the leaves. This will only affect the weeds treated.
Moss and many other lawn weeds can be prevented by keeping the lawn healthy. Aerate, spike and rake annually to improve drainage and remove debris.
If you have a problem with coarse grasses in the lawn, they can be controlled by slashing through the crowns with a knife before mowing, while weeds that spread by runners can be weakened by raking the stems upright before cutting.
If you have a serious weed problem, use a weed and feed product, ensuring that the formulation is for the right time of year. These are usually for spring or autumn application.