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