Autumn Garden Tasks Tasks For Flourishing Gardens This Season
Autumn is here, and it marks the beginning of one of the most important seasons for garden maintenance. While your landscape may seem like it is slowing down, with many plants preparing for their winter dormancy, your work is not over.
Autumn presents the perfect opportunity to set a solid foundation for the new gardening year and get your landscape ready for what’s ahead. It is a time to reap what you have sown, protect your current efforts, and look towards the future for better garden design.
As a leading landscaping company, Urban Landscapes appreciates the benefits every season brings. We work all year round to design and maintain gardens all year round, and know first-hand how vital autumn is for a flourishing future.
In this post, we are relying on our experience as professional landscape gardeners, with years of experience in Surrey, to provide a comprehensive list of autumn maintenance tasks. These tasks will help your garden not only thrive but survive the season, and set the foundation for a successful spring.
Why Autumn Is The Perfect Time For Garden Maintenance?
Autumn is the ideal time for garden maintenance due to the weather conditions and overall climate of the season. Autumns in Surrey are typically cool and see increased rainfall, which provides a fruitful environment for your landscape.
Working with the organic conditions of the season is a great way to care for your landscape and prepare it for the gardening year ahead. It is the perfect time to continue your efforts and get the garden prepared for winter, before the frost sets in and plants enter their dormant phase.
Taking the time now for autumn maintenance can provide benefits, such as:
- Healthier plants through preparational care, consistent maintenance and frequent feeding
- Reduced maintenance in spring, allowing you to enjoy a healthy, vibrant landscape without the hassle when the warmer weather arrives
- A more visually appealing garden during the winter, when many other landscapes fail
While a lot of autumn maintenance can be done independently, hiring a professional landscaping company is the best way to ensure complete success. Professional landscapers, like Urban Landscapes, have the experience and expertise needed to provide the tailored care your garden needs.
To help you narrow down your options for landscaping companies and determine whether we are the best choice for you, check out our guide on Questions To Ask Local Landscapers.
Autumn Garden Tasks: A Comprehensive Checklist For Surrey Gardens
To get your garden ready for the winter and ensure it remains an attractive, healthy environment as the season progresses, there are some essential autumn maintenance tasks you cannot miss.
Now is the perfect time to get outdoors and get your garden ready for the seasonal changes. These autumn maintenance tasks focus not only on creating an attractive garden now, but ensuring the long-term appeal of your outdoor space, ready for the new year:
1) Tidy And Prune: Preparing Plants For Winter
A large portion of autumn maintenance is getting your garden prepared for the winter. Winter can be a tough time for your garden, with the freezing temperatures and wet climate, which is why preparation is vital.
Cleaning your garden, to keep it free from debris and fallen leaves, is an ongoing autumn maintenance task. This needs to be a part of your regular schedule to prevent issues such as pests, diseases and rot. While fallen leaves are a symbol of the season, they can cause issues within your garden if left unattended.
Along with regular clearance and removal, autumn is also the ideal time to get ahead with pruning and shaping. Before plants enter their dormant season, prune shrubs and trees to keep them in a neat, healthy condition. When pruning, make sure to use clean, sharp tools and cut as close to the trunk as possible to avoid disease.
Pruning is not just for your trees and shrubs, as it can also be done to perennials. Most of your flowers will have faded or begin to fade in the autumn. Deadheading and cutting them back will help conserve energy so they can return to a full bloom come spring.
Now may also be the ideal time to bring in more vulnerable or sensitive plants, or provide frost coverings. This means either sheltering plants in greenhouses or within your home, or using fleece coverings to keep them safe in the cold temperatures that will soon arrive.
2) Refresh Lawn And Borders
As well as caring for the plants you already have, autumn maintenance presents a wonderful opportunity to refresh your garden for the new season.
While you are pruning and shaping your current planting areas, you can take stock of what worked for you this year and whether there are any new things you want to try come spring.
You can prepare your planting areas for these new ventures with autumn maintenance tasks such as replanting. You can repurpose perennials and shrubs, moving them to new areas in the garden or spreading out displays so each plant has more room to grow.
As you are considering what plants can stay, apply a layer of organic mulch to your planters and flower beds. Using wood chips or compost is a great way to maintain soil moisture, temperature and provide essential nutrients to your plants throughout the season, taking care of multiple autumn maintenance tasks in one go.
Your lawn also needs some care during this time. Before the frost of winter, make sure to do your final mow of the lawn, keeping it short and neat to last the season. Following the mowing, consider scarifying and aerating the grass to ensure a deeper penetration of lawn feeders.
When fertilising and feeding the lawn during autumn, make sure to use a seasonal-specific treatment. You may also want to reseed the lawn, paying particular attention to the area which may have become bare over the summer.
3) Autumn Planting: Trees, Shrubs And Spring Bulbs
While a lot of plants begin to slow down in the autumn, some remain an attractive feature within your garden throughout the season. There are various planting options to add colour to your autumn and winter garden, as we explore in this guide, and now is a great time to plant them.
Likewise, autumn maintenance presents the perfect opportunity to get ahead on your spring plans, as it is the ideal time to plant bulbs.
Flowers such as tulips, daffodils, crocuses, and lilies should be planted as part of your autumn maintenance so they can establish ahead of the spring blooms. By planting bulbs earlier in the gardening calendar, you can enjoy better and brighter blooms once spring arrives.
The warm soil and mild weather, compared to winter, are prime planting conditions for spring bulbs, as well as seasonal plants.
To help you decide what kind of plants will be best for your garden, whether you’re seeking a low-maintenance design or something more traditional, consider working with professional garden designers. We can recommend the best solution for your unique landscape and design the ideal layout for your requirements through our comprehensive garden design service.
4) Autumn Garden Tasks For Hardscaped Areas
As well as caring for your soft landscaping, autumn maintenance is needed for your hardscape areas. Your paving, patios and decking will need to be cleaned ahead of winter, ensuring they remain stain-free throughout the season.
As part of your ongoing autumn maintenance, continue to remove fallen leaves and debris from hardscape areas. They can cause stains and rot if left unattended, and fallen leaves can be composted or used as wildlife habitats when moved.
Before the weather gets too bad, autumn is the ideal time for minor repairs that may be needed. Repairing joints within paving and patios is best done before the frost sets in, as this can lead to more damage.
Perform an inspection of your garden, checking not only the hardscaping, but also fencing and lighting for signs of damage. It is best to get your garden repaired now before the worst of the weather, and our team is here to help.
Whether you need new fencing, a paving replacement, or a lighting upgrade, Urban Landscapes operates across Surrey throughout the year.
For inspiration regarding garden lighting and decorative upgrades, check out our guide here.
Conclusion
Autumn is a transitional season and the ideal time to get your garden prepared for the seasons ahead. As the weather is still mild, you can get outdoors to perform autumn maintenance tasks such as cleaning, planting and repairs to prepare your garden for winter.
The work you do now will prepare your garden not only for the harsh winter weather but also set the foundation for a successful spring and summer. Urban Landscapes is a leading landscaping company, operating across Surrey and the surrounding areas throughout the year.
We can provide maintenance, garden design, and landscaping services to keep your garden in prime condition throughout the seasons.
Contact Us Today
To learn more about our services or request a consultation with the team, please contact us today.
FAQs
What is the most important autumn maintenance task?
Essential autumn maintenance tasks include leaf clearance, pruning, and planting spring bulbs to prepare your garden for winter and the upcoming gardening season.
Can I redesign my garden in the autumn and winter?
Yes, the quieter seasons are an ideal time to redesign your garden. Landscaping companies are still in operation, and may have more availability during the quiet seasons. Also, the slower pace of landscaping gives you plenty of time to reconsider your current layout and reflect on the changes you want to make.
Should I hire a landscaping company for autumn maintenance?
While many garden maintenance tasks can be done independently, hiring a professional landscaper ensures your garden remains healthy, well-structured, and safe throughout the seasons.