06 May Late Autumn Garden Tasks
Autumnal views over one of our garden management sites.
It really has been a spectacular autumn this year. These shorter cooler autumn days have brought crisp cool mornings, blue sky days and amazing sunsets. The lovely rain last week was also greatly appreciated and needed despite it damaging some of the autumn colours.  Â
Hopefully you have had a chance to spend some time in the garden in the past month or two. It has definitely been inspiring weather to be out working in the garden.
Fertilise beds with an organic based fertiliser
- Start preparing any garden areas where you plan on planting out bare rooted trees and roses. Dig through organic garden compost or composted animal manure to build up the soil.
- Start making plans or even get started on dividing any perennials such as Agapanthus, Sedums, Salvias, Ornamental Grasses, Day Lilies. As a general guide any spring or summer flowering perennials can be divided in autumn. For some plants they maybe still flowering so make sure they are finished before dividing. Ideally, division should happen just before the ground gets too cold or if you are in a snow zones before the ground freezes.
- Prior to any predicted showers, spread an organic fertiliser to garden beds and lawn areas.
- Aim to mulch all garden areas as mentioned last month. It is good to do this after fertilising beds. Giving the beds a blanket of mulch now will help protect plants from frost damage, suppress weed growth and prepare them for the start of spring. If you do have lots of fallen deciduous leaves don’t forget you can use these as mulch ideally, compost these first (see article below for more details).
- Plant out spring flowering bulbs (see my article below for all you need to know about bulbs)
- Continue with succession planting of your cool season/winter vegetables
- Install frost protection (physical barrier) around any frost tender plants. As an alternative to a physical barrier you could also try a combination of a good layer of mulch, treat regularly with a seaweed emulsion such as Eco Seaweed and water well the day before you know, there will be a heavy frost.
- After showers of rain take the opportunity of the soft soil to pull any weeds out.
- Cut back or dead head flowering shrubs.
- Take a note of any dead branches in larger trees that could be removed in coming months. Stay tuned for my winter tree pruning guide next month.
- Get on top of lawn edges and any “wilder sections” of grass or pasture growth. With the cooler season most grasses will slow in growth so trying to pull these sections of the garden back into shape, will last longer with the cooler weather.
- If you grow citrus be aware of fruit fly. If you notice any signs of fruit fly you will need to start treatment.
- Now is a good time to repot your indoor plants, liquid fertilise and ensure they have a good light position for the winter months.
- Now is a great time to start a compost bin with all of your deciduous leaves.
