Collect and compost fallen leaves:
Rake up autumn leaves and add them to your compost heap or use them as mulch around trees and shrubs.
Prune:
Prune general summer flowering evergreen shrubs and trees that have finished flowering. Remove any dead, diseased or damaged branches to promote healthy growth as part of your regular autumn gardening routine.
Clear spent summer crops:
Pull up old vegetable plants and annual flowers to make space for winter crops. Alternatively, sow an autumn green manure crop, like oats or field peas, to “rest” the bed. When it’s later cut down and dug back in, it adds organic matter and nutrients, particularly nitrogen.
Plant your bulbs:
Get your spring flowering bulbs planted in pots or the garden an essential autumn gardening job that rewards you months later.
Mulch garden beds:
Apply a fresh layer of high carbon mulch like Rocky Point Premium Jumbo Bark Nuggets to ornamental garden beds or around tree bases. Apply Rocky Point Lucerne Mulch or Sugar Cane Mulch in the edible garden. Mulching will insulate roots and suppress weeds over the colder months.
Sow cool-season vegetables:
Plant crops such as broad beans, peas, spinach and garlic now so they can thrive in the cooler weather ahead.
Divide and replant perennials:
Lift and divide overcrowded herbaceous perennials such as daylilies, agapanthus, kniphofia, tulbaghia to rejuvenate plants and boost flowering next year.
Clean and store tools:
Give your garden tools a thorough clean, oil metal parts, sharpen blades and store them in a dry spot to prevent rust.
Feed the soil:
Dig in compost or well-rotted manure to enrich your garden beds and improve soil structure for the coming season’s growth, especially for ornamentals like roses, camellias and deciduous trees.
Get your potted Easter and Mother’s Day gifts ready:
Pot up now so plants have time to establish and look their best for gifting – another thoughtful autumn gardening project
Get your autumn off to a good start with these autumn garden jobs!
