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Temperatures are falling, mists are rising and it's time to begin the long, slow process of putting your garden to bed. Here are the autumnal jobs to be getting on with this month:
General tasks:
Dig clay soils while the ground is still easy to work, leaving claggy clods exposed for the frost to break down.
Rake up fallen leaves and store in bin bags with a few airholes punched through: after a year they'll turn into...
Give your lawn some autumn TLC before tucking it up for winter and it'll bounce back in spring with redoubled vigour, giving you the greenest, smoothest start to your new year.
Lawns are getting tired by now after a long summer as football pitch, pet playground and sunbathing spot, so take a long critical look and work out what needs fixing.
Start by raking out the 'thatch', dead grass and moss which accumulates over the ye...
Take action against lurking pests hoping to camp out in your greenhouse this winter - if you don't deal with them now they'll be waiting to infest your crops from for the moment you start planting next year.
Winters are getting warmer, and that means pests are finding it easier to snuggle down in nooks and crannies. Not only are they occasionally active during the winter – they also get going far earlier in spring.
Fumigati...
Plant out biennial wallflowers for a dazzling display of colour next spring.
Like foxgloves, sweet williams and forget-me-nots, wallflowers are sown one year to flower the next. But if you've missed the boat and forgotten to sow your own earlier this year, you'll find great value bare-root bundles and potted plants ready to go in our garden centre right now to fill those gaps left by summer-flowering annuals.
Choose a sunny, well-drained sp...
Harvest your haricots for a filling and tasty addition to winter stews and soups which will keep you warm to the toes right through winter.
If you're growing French beans, you're growing haricots: while many gardeners know how delicious slender green beans can be, we often forget about their secondary use, as dried haricots. In French gardens it's a staple crop, but less common here.
Most French bean varieties make good haricots but a few a...
Ripen your pumpkins in the last of the autumn sunshine and they'll not only make fantastic Jack o'Lanterns for Hallowe'en, they'll also keep for months.
There are loads of gorgeous pumpkin varieties around these days. For real whoppers to carve into spooky decorations for your doorstep, go for 'Atlantic Giant' or 'Hundredweight', but if space is limited try more modestly-proportioned 'Becky', or dwarf pumpkins like 'Jack B Little' or 'Baby Bear', perfec...
Build a wildlife haven to provide shelter for minibeasts over winter and they'll quickly move in. Quite apart from the joy of having a garden buzzing with life, it's great for the environment and you'll also be attracting a free pollinating service plus built-in pest control for next season.
Most creatures are searching for somewhere to spend the winter about now, so it's a great time to tuck different hidey-holes into sheltered, shady spots all around...
Squirrel away your summer surplus for the cold winter months to come and you can still enjoy the delights of home-grown produce even when there's snow on the ground outside.
Always choose your very best veg for storing: never put damaged fruit and veg to store as even the smallest hole starts rotting in storage and will rapidly infect its neighbour. Some veg also store better than others. Early varieties of apple, like 'Discovery', won't keep long, so o...
Give hedges a last trim so they go into the winter with a crisp outline, setting off your garden perfectly and looking particularly handsome just rimed with frost.
Hedges are invaluable in the garden. As well as drawing the boundaries between you and your neighbours, they create protective windbreaks to keep the worst of the weather off your precious plants. Plant mixed hedges with native shrubs like hawthorn, beech, wild rose and blackthorn and you'll...
September's plant of the month is the Japanese anemone, a real star of the border at this time of year. You usually associate woodland plants which enjoy shade with the spring - but Japanese anemones come into their own in early autumn, just as other more summery plants are beginning to fade and just as you need a new injection of colour.
There are two main types: tall, willowy Anemone x hybrida and the shorter and daintier A. hupehensis which has semi...
What to do in the garden in September:
Time to rev up again: this is one of the busiest months in the year, so arm yourself with secateurs and a trowl - it's time to go gardening! Here are a few of the jobs you can be getting on with:
General tasks:
Plant, plant, plant! Early autumn is by far the best time to establish new shrubs, trees and perennials.
Give your lawn some TLC after its hard summer as a football...
Prune rambling roses as soon as they've flowered. You can tell the difference between these and climbing types because rambling roses produce multiple whippy stems from the base: climbing roses, on the other hand, form a woody framework from which flowering shoots grow through the year.
Start by removing any obviously dead or dying shoots right back to the ground. Then cut out the shoots which have flowered, removing them as close to the ground as possi...