Generally
- Raise the cutting height of your lawn mower and continue composting clippings
- Wash out and top up bird baths regularly
- Stretch netting over ponds and water features to prevent autumn leaves blowing in
- Water houseplants less frequently and move them off particularly cold window sills at night
- Collect fallen leaves from around roses to reduce the risk of diseases carrying over to next season
- Order bare-root fruit trees to plant later this year
- Clean out water butts and check downpipe fittings
In The Flower Garden
- Buy tulips now while they’re fresh in garden centres, but hold off planting till next month
- Plant daffodils, hyacinths and crocus in pots
- Lift and pot up tender perennials to protect over winter
- Clear away faded summer bedding and annuals, composting the plants
- Fork over bare patches ready for planting spring bulbs
- Sow sweet peas in pots and protect the plants in a frame over winter
- Sow hardy annuals in borders for earlier flowers next summer
- Prune tall rose bushes and standard roses to reduce wind rock
- Pinch out sweet pea seedling tips for bushier plants and more flowers next year
In the Fruit and Veg Garden
- Pick ripe apples and store the best in fruit crates
- Dig up strawberry runners and pot them up
- Net autumn raspberries and blackberries to protect them from birds
- Lift and dry maincrop potatoes and store in paper sacks in a cool, dark place
- Pot up a few herbs to bring into a porch or grow on the window sill
- Sow broad beans and hardy peas for early crops next year
- Check pears regularly to harvest when perfectly ripe
- Vegetables to sow now include winter radishes, lettuce and salad leaves, spinach, spring onions, and turnip ‘Tokyo Cross’ for its green tops
The Greenhouse
- Scrub off shading paint and wash the glass thoroughly inside and out
- Listen out for weather forecasts of early frosts and be ready to bring tender potted plants under cover
- Ventilate the greenhouse on warm days, but close doors and vents every evening to trap in the warmth
- Water crops in pots and growing bags more sparingly, but continue feeding weekly
- Stop watering gloxinias, begonias and achimenes to let their leaves die down completely before storing tubers in dry compost for winter
- Pot up tender perennials, like fuchsias, from summer displays and bring into the greenhouse
- Raise roller blinds, but roll them back down on very bright days
- Let sweet peppers develop their full colour and size before picking